LOI SAM, Pakistan — A two-month offensive by Pakistani forces has driven militants from a stronghold through which Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters had poured into neighboring Afghanistan to attack U.S. troops, the army said Saturday.
But at least 95 civilians died in the operation. Their deaths could increase sympathy for the militants, observers warned. A total of 1,500 suspected militants were killed, along with 73 army soldiers.
The military said its forces captured Loi Sam in the Bajur tribal region. The town sits on a vital intersection linking the border to three neighboring Pakistan regions.
Bajur is part of Pakistan’s tribal belt that has become the stronghold of Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters waging an intensifying insurgency on both sides of the border.
U.S. officials worried about record fatalities among their forces in Afghanistan have praised the operation and said it was helping reduce violence on the Afghan side. But the Americans have not halted missile strikes on suspected militant hideouts in other parts of Pakistan’s wild border region. The Associated Press
