By Rahimullah Yusufzai & Sailab Mahsud
PESHAWAR: Bombing by jet fighters and helicopters sent by the US-led coalition forces and artillery and mortar shelling carried out from Afghanistan's territory into Pakistan's tribal borderlands on Friday night and Saturday morning killed, at least, 33 people in South Waziristan and North Waziristan.
The cross-border raids caused death and destruction on a scale not seen so far in attacks of similar nature in the two Waziristans. Apart from the human losses, the bombing and shelling destroyed about two dozen houses, damaged vehicles and killed cattle-heads. The dead included several women and children.
There was no comment by the government on the cross-border raid on the village Tor Jawar, which translates into 'black forest'. But villagers and tribal sources said Tor Jawar, situated three kilometres inside Pakistan near the border town of Angoor Adda, was bombed by jet fighters and helicopters that had flown from Afghan territory. They described the jets as B-52 bombers and the helicopters as Apache, both US-manufactured and in the use of American soldiers deployed to Afghanistan.
Reached on phone, some residents of Angoor Adda who had rushed to Tor Jawar after hearing about the bombing said 21 bodies had been retrieved from the debris of the mud-brick houses destroyed in the attack and more could be buried there. They said up to 40 persons were injured in the bombing and a number of cattle had been killed. The dead were buried in both Tor Jawar and in Bermal across the border in Paktika province. The Wazir tribal people living in the border areas normally own houses and land on both sides of the Durand Line in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Of the 15 houses reportedly damaged in the bombing in Tor Jawar, three were big fort-like homes. One was owned by Zar Jannan, a tribesman from the Miami Gangikhel Wazir tribe. He was killed along with seven members of his family. The lone survivor of the family was an injured child. Eight members of another family from the Malikshahi Wazir tribe were also killed, their only survivor an old lady who lost her both legs and was stated to be in critical condition.
Requesting anonymity, a pro-Taliban commander in Angoor Adda told The News that innocent tribal people had been killed in the attack on Tor Jawar. He said none among the dead was foreign or local militant.
The government nevertheless reacted to the cross-border raid in North Waziristan. The authorities, including military spokesman Major-General Waheed Arshad, initially said nine people were killed in North Waziristan's Shawal valley by mortar shells fired from across the border. Later, a figure of 10 dead was mentioned. They said the dead included three women and a child.
But tribesmen in the area put the death toll at 12, all locals. Among the dead were nine from the Ahmadzai Wazir tribe and three from the Saidgi village that borders Afghanistan's Gurbaz district in Khost province. They said more than 30 persons were injured in the bombing. According to tribal sources, the villages that were bombed and shelled in the forested Shawal valley were Mana and Mangratay, both close to the border with Afghanistan. They said eight houses were destroyed in the attack along with three small trucks and a hotel called Pakistan Hotel. The tribesmen there claimed B-52 bombers and Apache helicopters had taken part in the bombing.
It is relevant to mention here that almost a week ago, US helicopters had dropped threatening leaflets in the border areas of Pakistan with drawings of B-52 bombers and helicopters. The leaflets warned the Pakistani tribesmen that their villages would be bombed if military training camps continued to operate in their area and infiltration of fighters into Afghanistan didn't stop. It is possible that the tribesmen mentioned B-52 bombers and Apache helicopters because the leaflets carried the warning of bombing by these planes.
The cross-border raids in North Waziristan and South Waziristan followed fighting in Bermal district in Afghanistan's southeastern Paktika province on Friday. It appears the US-led coalition forces were attacking Pakistan's tribal territory in retaliation for the Taliban attacks on their positions in the border area inside Afghanistan. Nato's International Security Assistance Forces (Isaf) earlier claimed that more than 60 insurgents were killed in the fighting, mostly in bombing by its warplanes, while crossing the border into Afghanistan. It said this was the largest formation of insurgents moving into Afghanistan from Pakistani border areas since January 10 when 130 out of 180 fighters were killed.
Another report said Pakistani border village, Khwaja Khizar, also located near Angoor Adda in South Waziristan, was shelled on Saturday afternoon by Afghan National Army (ANA) forces and their US and Nato allies. Details about losses to life and property in Khwaja Khizar, sited right on the Pak-Afghan border, were not available.
There were also reports of firing with small arms fire by ANA soldiers in the direction of Angoor Adda Saturday. The whole border remained tense Saturday and movement was restricted in the area due to the heightened risk.
Separately, three paramilitary soldiers from the Frontier Corps (FC) were killed and two others were wounded on Saturday in an explosion caused by an improvised explosives device (IED) near Mir Ali town in North Waziristan.
However, AFP news agency quoted an unnamed official as saying that four FC personnel were killed. Government officials and tribesmen in the area said an explosion triggered by a remote-controlled device targetted the vehicle carrying the personnel of Khyber Rifles, which is part of the Frontier Corps, in Karamkot near Mir Ali town.
The militiamen were on patrol for providing security to a Pakistan Army convoy passing through the area. The military convoy was on its way from Miranshah, headquarters of North Waziristan, to Bannu.
Another more credible version of the incident is that an IED was planted in an FC post by the roadside in the Karamkot area. It exploded when the FC men came there in the morning to take up their positions. The FC personnel killed in the explosion were identified as Sepoy Hamid Ali Bangash, Sepoy Tanveer Ahmad and Sepoy Saeed Khan. Two FC Jawans who sustained injuries were Sepoy Bilal Ahmad and Sepoy Zahid Mahsud.
"An improvised explosive device exploded near the vehicle of paramilitary soldiers. Three were killed on the spot, while the fourth soldier died at hospital due to injuries," a security official told AFP.
Agencies add: ISPR spokesman Major-General Waheed Arshad said some rockets fired by international forces flew over the border into North Waziristan Agency during the Friday night battle.
"Some rockets were fired across and landed in our area. They hit a couple of houses and 10 people died, civilians who were living there, and 14 were injured," Arshad said.
"We have protested the incident and asked explanation from Afghan and coalition forces," Arshad said, adding that "they had apologised and said it was inadvertent firing."
