Around 50 Pakistani soldiers die in Afghan crash
Up to 50 Pakistani troops were missing today amid fierce fighting with pro-Taliban militants near the Afghan border.
The troops disappeared after security posts and a foot patrol near the town of Mir Ali were attacked.
The fighting, that has already left scores of others dead, comes as President Musharraf tries to secure another term as president vowing to bolster Pakistan’s fight against Islamic extremism.
It also coincides with a change of command in the Pakistani army, which is suffering heavy losses in an escalating confrontation with militants who have seized control of swathes of territory near the frontier.
The army said earlier that about 60 suspected militants and 20 soldiers had died in two major clashes in North Waziristan yesterday.
About a dozen civilians, including women and children, died when a stray mortar struck their home in Mir Ali.
Some residents fled from nearby villages.
“Oh God! Kill those who killed our innocent people and made us homeless,” said Ahsan Ullah. He said about 300 people had left the area.
Pakistan sent troops into its rugged, semiautonomous frontier region for the first time after Taliban and al-Qaida militants took refuge there from the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.
On-off fighting has killed hundreds of Pakistani troops and militants and flared again in July after the army stormed a radical mosque in the capital, Islamabad, and sent more forces into the border region.
Despite the fighting, American officials who count President Musharraf as a key counter-terrorism ally claim the area has become a safe haven for al-Qaida and a rear base for Taliban guerrillas fighting Nato troops in Afghanistan.
