Miran Shah, Pakistan – Pakistani soldiers and helicopter gunships attacked a suspected al-Qaeda camp Wednesday near the Afghan border, killing more than 45 militants and angering residents who called for a holy war days before a visit by President Bush.
As news of the attack spread in the rugged northwestern region, tribesmen who sympathize with the militants came out of their homes and began firing into the air. A mosque loudspeaker urged people to “wage jihad against the army.”
The offensive was in North Waziristan, a region controlled by fiercely independent, well- armed tribes believed to be sheltering al-Qaeda fugitives and Taliban remnants. The militants often cross the porous Afghan-Pakistani border.
Three helicopter gunships attacked the militants’ mountain hide-out near Saidgi, a village 9 miles west of Miran Shah. The assault “knocked out a den of foreign militants” and killed more than 45 of them, an army statement said.
The slain men – most from Central Asian and Arab countries – included an al-Qaeda- linked Chechen commander, identified only by his code name, Imam, who died when a helicopter fired on a vehicle in which he was fleeing, an army official said.
