Peshawar, Pakistan – Pakistan said Tuesday that an operation involving helicopter gunships and thousands of troops destroyed a major al-Qaeda hide-out and led to the arrests of 21 suspected militants in a remote northwestern tribal region near Afghanistan.
Lt. Gen. Safdar Hussain, the army commander responsible for anti-terrorism operations in northwestern Pakistan, told reporters that foreigners and “some important men” are among the captured, although he refused to reveal identities or nationalities.
The al-Qaeda hide-out appeared to be a fairly sophisticated outpost, Hussain said, with communications equipment to contact militants in Afghanistan; a cache of bombs, detonators and rockets; and a tiny Chinese-made drone aircraft used for surveillance.
Hussain called it the “biggest-ever operation” in the lawless North Waziristan region and said it was still going on after four days.
“As a result of this operation, a center of al-Qaeda and terrorists has been destroyed and the back of al-Qaeda and terrorists has been broken in the tribal areas because terrorist activities were carried out from here,” he said.
The operation coincided with a visit by Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to the United States, where he said Pakistan is winning the war on terror.
“We are on the winning side because al-Qaeda has been neutralized,” Musharraf told CNN. “They cease to exist as a homogeneous body.”
Though an ally of Washington, Musharraf’s government has faced criticism from U.S., Afghan and U.N. officials over cross-border militant attacks at targets inside Afghanistan, where violence has escalated ahead of Sunday’s elections for a new parliament.
