United States-led coalition forces killed 24 Taliban fighters two hundred metres inside Pakistan�s North Waziristan Agency, a military spokesman said on Friday.
The bodies of the 24 fighters, most of them Afghans, were found 200 metres inside Pakistani near Lawara Mandi in North Waziristan early on Friday, military spokesman Maj Gen Shaukat Sultan told Daily Times. The Taliban attacked a US military base in Paktia province late on Thursday evening, a source in Miranshah told Daily Times. �The Taliban attacked the base with rockets and killed and wounded Americans,� said the source. Sultan said that the US informed Pakistan and �we deployed troops to prevent the Taliban from crossing into our area.� He said the Taliban were killed by the US forces inside Pakistan.
The military spokesman did not say that Pakistan protested the US violation of the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Sultan said that the US side had informed Pakistan before opening fire on the fleeing militants. �There will still be a check to see whether there had been any violation of Pakistani territory or airspace.�
He said the authorities had not ascertained the nationalities of all the killed Talibans yet. �Most of them appear to be Afghans,� he said. But he did not rule out the involvement of local tribesmen in the Paktia attack.
He said no local civilian was killed or wounded in the US attack. �All killed were militants,� he said. He said that two twin cabin vehicles were hit in the attack. It was not clear whether the US forces killed the Taliban with missiles or chased them with helicopters. A witness said he saw US helicopters engaged in the attack, while a local TV channel said the fighters were killed by missile.
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