Helicopter gunships launched new assaults on al Qaeda and Taliban hideouts in the mountainous north-west on Saturday as President Pervez Musharraf prepared to address a peace summit in Kabul.
Cobra helicopters killed three suspected militants, pounding what was believed to be their base after a firefight Saturday in Mir Ali town in North Waziristan tribal district, the military said. "A security convoy was passing when an improvised explosive device planted by militants exploded, causing no harm to the security personnel," chief military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad told AFP.
"Armed miscreants then attacked security men with automatic weapons that injured a soldier. In retaliatory firing by helicopters three miscreants were killed," Arshad said.
"We are responding with greater force against militant attacks on security forces now," Arshad said on Friday. "The action is not being done under any outside pressure. We know al Qaeda is present in the region, there are Taliban elements and their local supporters and we are acting against them in our own national interest."