Pakistani Troops Attack Militants
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PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Security forces backed by helicopters attacked a stronghold of a militant cleric in northwestern Pakistan today, trading fire with his supporters near the scene of a suicide attack that killed 20 people, police said.
The fighting broke out in the village of Imam Dheri where the cleric, Maulana Fazlullah, has a sprawling seminary. Earlier this week, some 2,500 paramilitary troops were deployed in the surrounding district of Swat to combat his militant supporters.
A Pakistan army spokesman, Major General Waheed Arshad, said army troops were sent to the region as reserves to help local authorities maintain law and order, if requested.
“It is not an army operation,” General Arshad told Pakistan’s Dawn television news, adding that the army had provided helicopters to provide surveillance and cover for the security personnel.
Militants in the village and security forces fought with rocket-propelled grenades, mortars, and other weapons across the rushing Swat River, witnesses said. Hundreds of residents fled, a local shop-owner, Rahman Khan, said.
Residents said they saw four helicopters hovering over the area and could hear loud explosions from heavy weapons fire. Mohammed Zubair, 35, said he saw one of the choppers firing rockets near Fazlullah’s house.
“The security forces attacked a building where Maulana Fazlullah had been appearing in recent days to urge his followers to target the Pakistan army, police and other security forces,” a local police official in the nearby town of Mingora, Muhib Ullah, said.
Mr. Ullah said it was unlikely Mr. Fazlullah was inside the seminary. In an FM radio broadcast on Wednesday, Mr. Fazlullah reportedly announced he was shifting to neighboring mountainous district, Kohistan.
There was no immediate word on casualties.
Also today, militants fired at a helicopter carrying a senior army officer. They missed the target and the helicopter made safe landing in the same area said another local police official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media.
The army declined comment.
