Pakistan'army air strike kills 71 civilians!!!

bhramos

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Pakistan'army air strike kills 71 civilians

PESHAWAR: Up to 71 civilians were killed in a weekend strike by Pakistani jets near the Afghan border, survivors and a government official said Tuesday - a rare confirmation of civilian casualties that risks undercutting public support for the fight against militants.


The government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, said authorities had already handed out the equivalent of $125,000 in compensation to families of the victims in a remote village in the Khyber tribal area.

Also Tuesday, a village elder claimed 13 civilians had been killed in US missile strike on Monday night elsewhere in the northwest, contesting accounts by Pakistani security officials that four militants were killed.

Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas on Monday denied that any of the dead in the Pakistani air force attack were civilians, saying the army had intelligence that militants were gathering at the site of the strike. The victims were initially reported to be suspected militants.

Two survivors interviewed Tuesday in hospital in the main northwestern city of Peshawar gave the first detailed account of the attack, which took place Saturday morning.

They said most of the victims were killed when they were trying to rescue people trapped by an earlier strike on the house of a village elder.

''This house was bombed on absolutely wrong information,'' said Khanan Gul Khan, a resident of the village who was visiting a relative in hospital. ''This area has nothing to do with militants.''

“There were no militants,” Ikramullah Khan Kokikhel, a tribal elder from Saravilla, told Reuters. “It was a house of a tribesman whose three sons are serving as (government) military men.”

Fighter jets first attacked the house Saturday morning.

When residents arrived to remove bodies from the rubble, the jets attacked again, witnesses said.

“It's cruelty. We want a court martial of those who were behind this loss,” said Kokikhel.

Zahir Noor, a villager from Saravilla, said there were bunkers around the village, but they were for defence against the militants.

“We have opposed them openly and never allow them in our territory,” he said.

The senior government official in the region, Shafeerullah Wazir, agreed most of the dead were not militants.

“We believe that the information about the presence of militants in this locality was incorrect,” he told a tribal gathering in Peshawar, the major city that borders the Khyber region. “We're investigating it.”

He apologised on behalf of the government and said he regretted the loss of life.

The military denied civilians were killed.

“The militants had built fortified bunkers and their hideouts were struck after we got ground confirmation by intelligence officials that they were present in their hideouts,” a military official said on Sunday.

Khan said many of the families in the village, Sara Walla, had sons serving in the security forces and that it had a history of cooperating with the army. He said the owner of the house that was bombed initially, Hamid Khan, had two sons serving in the paramilitary Frontier Corps.

He said 68 people were killed and many more wounded. The political official said Monday that the families of 71 victims had been compensated, but did not identify them.

Dilla Baz Khan suffered a fractured arm in the second attack, which he said came around two hours after the first one.

''We were about to pull out a lady from the rubble when another jet came and bombed us,'' he said from the orthopedic ward of the Hayatabad medical complex in Peshawar. ''Then I lost consciousness.''

He said an official from the Khyber political administration visited him Monday and give him $220 for the loss of four relatives, including his brother. ''He said we are sorry for this and we pray for your early recovery,'' he said.

The Pakistani army, under heavy pressure from the United States, has moved forcefully against Taliban and al-Qaida militants in the northwest over the last 18 months. It regularly reports killing scores of militants in airstrikes, but rarely says it is responsible for civilian deaths.

Brief reports of significant civilian casualties in the strike Saturday have appeared in the local media in recent days, but have not attracted much attention or criticism.

An editorial Tuesday in Dawn, a respected English-language daily, said it was clear that the dead had no links to the militants and that the incident ''strengthens the hands of the Taliban.''

It said around 60 people were killed.

''Such actions defy description and an explanation is in order from those who ordered the assault,'' it said.

Pakistan intelligence officials, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said a missile attack late Monday close to the town of Miramshah in North Waziristan killed four suspected militants. Noor Gul, a resident in the village, disputed that, saying 13 civilians, including two children, were killed.

http://beta.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connec...m-many-civilians-slain-during-operation-ss-03
 

BunBunCake

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The people from Punjab are living life and passing orders while the rest of Pakistan suffers.
Hope some of these Pakistanis realize what their government really is.

This also shows the 'capability' of the Pakistani Air Force. While the United States has a map of whole of Pakistan, Pakistani military don't know where to strike in their own country?

Pathetic I say. This wasn't an operation by drones either.
 

bhramos

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The people from Punjab are living life and passing orders while the rest of Pakistan suffers.
Hope some of these Pakistanis realize what their government really is.

This also shows the 'capability' of the Pakistani Air Force. While the United States has a map of whole of Pakistan, Pakistani military don't know where to strike in their own country?

Pathetic I say. This wasn't an operation by drones either.
may be thats the best they can do, or their capabilities best can be done by PAF,
 

BunBunCake

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http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latest-news/pakistan-admits-airstrike-killed-45-civilians

Pakistan Admits Airstrike Killed 45 Civilians
ISLAMABAD—The Pakistan army acknowledged Wednesday that at least 45 civilians died in a military air strike targeting Taliban leaders last weekend, an admission which could fan domestic criticism of the U.S.-backed war effort against Islamic militants.

General Athar Abbas, the chief military spokesman, said the civilians were killed when Pakistani jets bombed a suspected militant hideout in Sera Vela village which is located in the Khyber tribal region in the northwest of the country near the border with Afghanistan.

The military, which rarely confirms civilian deaths, had earlier denied a report by Pakistani newspaper Dawn that more than 60 civilians were killed in the attack. The dead had gathered around a compound used by Taliban militants that was targeted by a Pakistani air force strike, Gen. Abbas said. He didn't detail how many militants died in the action.

Many of those killed belonged to the Kookikhel tribe, which has opposed the Taliban. Some retired army and paramilitary soldiers living in the area were among the dead and injured. Kashmalo Khan, a 63-year-old retired soldier whose right leg was fractured, said he lost 11 family members in the strike.

Washington has praised Pakistan for success in battling Islamic militants in its tribal areas, a semi-autonomous zone which has been used by Taliban and al-Qaeda leaders for years as a base to plan attacks against U.S. forces in neighboring Afghanistan.

The military, aided by unmanned U.S. drone strikes, has since last year killed a number of top Pakistan Taliban leaders who were operating from the tribal region of South Waziristan. The Pakistani military believes that militants who survived those attacks have taken refuge in Khyber and Orakzai, another tribal area.

Since late last year, stepped up military operations in Orakzai have forced more than 200,000 people to leave their homes in the area, the United Nations said this week. That added to an estimated 1.3 million people who had already been displaced by fighting in the tribal regions.

Mounting numbers of civilian deaths, added to a growing refugee crisis, could further undermine the Pakistani military's war against Islamic militants in the border regions, analysts say. U.S. drone strikes are already unpopular among many Pakistanis.

"The incident will further complicate the Pakistani military's efforts to mobilize public support for its anti-Taliban campaign," said Rifaat Hussain, a professor of security studies at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad. "Family of the victims could become easy recruits for the militants."

Although weakened, the Pakistan Taliban, which is linked to the Afghan Taliban, have been able to evade capture in the mountainous tribal regions and continue to carry out attacks. Earlier this month, the Pakistan Taliban claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on a pro-government meeting in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, which killed more than 50 people.

It remains unclear who is directing the Pakistan Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, after its leader Baitullah Mehsud was killed by a U.S. missile strike in August 2009. Hakimullah Mehsud, who took over the leadership, was reported to have been injured in an attack on his hideout in February but it remains unclear whether he was killed.
 

M.Riaz

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http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect...-kayani-apologises-over-civilian-deaths-ss-03

General Kayani apologises over civilian deaths


ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's army chief of staff, General Ashfaq Kayani, made a rare public apology Saturday over the deaths of civilians during military action and issued orders to avoid further incidents.

Military and political officials initially said at least 42 militants were killed in a gunfight and air strike in the Tirah valley of northwest Khyber district, where Pakistani jets targeted local Islamist militants last Saturday.

But tribesmen said dozens of civilians were killed and the military on Saturday released a rare public apology over the deaths, in what is part of Pakistan's lawless and semi-autonomous tribal belt neighbouring Afghanistan.

Kayani apologised to the Kukikhel tribe over the "unfortunate" incident "which resulted in loss of precious and innocent civilian lives," the military said in a statement.

"He offered his heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families. The chief of army staff stated that he has ordered measures to avoid reoccurrence of such incidents in future," it added.

Political officials had tasked a six-member committee of tribal elders from the area to report on the precise numbers of civilian casualties.

Two tribesmen on the committee told AFP that 61 civilians were killed and 21 wounded, but so far there has been no official confirmation of the numbers from either the military or the political administration.

Kayani's statement provided no precise details on how the civilians were killed and military spokesmen were not immediately reachable for comment.

Authorities in Khyber - part of Pakistan's tribal badlands where Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants have a presence - set aside 10.5 million-rupee (125,000 dollars) compensation fund for any innocent victims killed or wounded.
 

Rage

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Collateral damage occurs in every war, but 'collateral damage' of this scale is unprecedented.

Which is why, the Pakistani Army needs to come out of its American-supplied war-birds, that allow it to effect 'disproportionate war '- and disproportionate casualties, and put stock on the ground. Which is why it needs to develop its own scant counter-insurgence capabilities. Which is why it needs to stop relying upon long-range artillery, to bomb whole villages into submission, long after the Taliban have evacuated them. Which is why it needs to stop relying upon 'air strikes' and 'drone attacks' or bombardment, "in concert with NATO forces", and actually do some fighting on the ground.

The only way you can win an insurgency war is by fighting like an insurgent. NATO tactics simply won't work, not least because Pakisthan is not as technologically competent.
 

Known_Unknown

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Which is why, the Pakistani Army needs to come out of its American-supplied war-birds, that allow it to effect 'disproportionate war '- and disproportionate casualties, and put stock on the ground. Which is why it needs to develop its own scant counter-insurgence capabilities. Which is why it needs to stop relying upon long-range artillery, to bomb whole villages into submission, long after the Taliban have evacuated them. Which is why it needs to stop relying upon 'air strikes' and 'drone attacks' or bombardment, "in concert with NATO forces", and actually do some fighting on the ground.
Although I agree with the general sentiments, in the case of Pakistan, it would be in India's strategic interest to let the pot keep boiling as that would keep the PA's focus on the western front instead of the eastern. Let the PA use fighters and artillery to flatten villages......hopefully the long term animosity that these actions create will distract Pakistanis from India for another generation.
 

Rage

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Although I agree with the general sentiments, in the case of Pakistan, it would be in India's strategic interest to let the pot keep boiling as that would keep the PA's focus on the western front instead of the eastern. Let the PA use fighters and artillery to flatten villages......hopefully the long term animosity that these actions create will distract Pakistanis from India for another generation.
Absoloutely. You think like a true Maratha! =kiss


My thoughts were purely in terms of what was beneficial to them. In terms of cold hard, crude self-calculating self-interest, embroiling them in their own internal wars is the best way of keeping them 'off balance'. Once the disparity is widened to a sufficient extent, for which par is already set for the course, challenging Indian claims to occupied territories, our presence in sovereign nation-states like Afghanistan, which are not their f*ckin' 'backyard' or whatever the f*ck kinda 'yard' they think it is, and the right of access to central Asia, as well as the relative costs of exacerbating insurgencies and spawning terrorist-grounds as proxies in other nation-states in this, our subcontinent, will escalate for them to a point where resistance is not just futile, it is counterf*ckin'productive.
 

gogbot

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hopefully the long term animosity that these actions create will distract Pakistanis from India for another generation.
I am confused.

What did they learn after 1965 ?

what did they learn after 1971 ?

what did they learn after Kargil ?

what did you thunk they will learn now ?

Every-time all that's happened was a re-writing of history , Placing India as the primary fault for all their problems. Saying India did this , India cried to the US and so on.
the only time Pakistan kept quite was when we had the A-bomb and they did not.

As long as the current establishment exits , so far as they are concerned all problems will be the result of outside interference primarily from India.


simply put when you have society growing up to look at India as the other side , have them be accused of all the problem you face and then have their side of the story supported but he international sector. Some people will simply believe everybody is lying except them leading to conspiracy theories and what else . whatever their reason is patriotism or something else. This is just the ground reality

Even if the Pakistani government does a U-turn and works things our with India . It will be many generations before the scar on the sub-continent is ever healed.
 
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Rayala

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71!?! That is one less than 72!
I wonder how the Pakistani media arrives at the number of casualities, do they actually check or simply guess or even better ask PA....
 

bhramos

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I am confused.

What did they learn after 1965 ?

what did they learn after 1971 ?

what did they learn after Kargil ?

what did you thunk they will learn now ?

Every-time all that's happened was a re-writing of history , Placing India as the primary fault for all their problems. Saying India did this , India cried to the US and so on.
the only time Pakistan kept quite was when we had the A-bomb and they did not.

As long as the current establishment exits , so far as they are concerned all problems will be the result of outside interference primarily from India.


simply put when you have society growing up to look at India as the other side , have them be accused of all the problem you face and then have their side of the story supported but he international sector. Some people will simply believe everybody is lying except them leading to conspiracy theories and what else . whatever their reason is patriotism or something else. This is just the ground reality

Even if the Pakistani government does a U-turn and works things our with India . It will be many generations before the scar on the sub-continent is ever healed.
nice video mate, what ever happens in Pak, its the only India.!!!
 
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Solid Beast

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I hope people can see the situation GoP is in, having to kill close to a 100 civilians to kill a handful of low level insurgents. That also from the "shandaar" and hot shot ace pilots of PAF . nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn Pakistan is going to fold in itself soon and the catalysing bang will come from these same areas where the majority of the populace is sustaining and hiding the militancy from an enraged and blood thirsty GoP. Generally the civilians to militants killed ratio has stayed the same, just going by what eyewitnesses have stated, more civilians have died in actuality from land or air based strikes. If you take a walk in this region the last thing you will feel like is that you are in Pakistan, the place is now haunted for good. Both the civilians and militants are the enemy in this battle to regain lost writ and influence (not against terrorism, terror is sitting in every major garrison and government building).

As for the apology given by the army, this is only so because the clans caught up in the bombing were on GoP payroll (and still in the path of a militant camp?...). This is all politics from the security establishment, this is called Pakistani style carrot and stick. Trust me they don't shed a tear for those they purposefully bomb and try to cover up with the often used stupidity card. I guess Washington will have gotten a call demanding the latest equipment after this incident as well. As a Pakistani I feel the need to say this : Dumb mother **ers, there are so many sh*heads running the country you lose consciousness just thinking about it. COAS, PAF Johnny Walker rank officers and 50 dollar a month soldiers being trained in coin are all incapable and were unfortunately born to live during these pressing times.
 
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ajtr

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Mortar fire kills one woman in Khyber Agency

KHYBER AGENCY: A woman has been killed and four children injured as a mortar shell hit their house in the Khyber Agency, reports DawnNews.

The mortar shell came from security forces shelling in the Khyber Agency.

The house was located in the Kamar area of the Bara Tehsil.
 

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