By Aamir Latif
ISLAMABAD
Six suspected Taliban militants were killed on Tuesday in a clash with army troops in restless North Waziristan raising the total number of their casualties to 926 since June 15, officials said.
A civilian working for the army was also killed in the operation which took place during a clearance operation near Dattakhel on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border considered a stronghold of Taliban’s Hafiz Gul Bahadur group - and the public face of powerful Haqqani Network, the Pakistani army’s representative, Inter Services Public Relations said.
Over the last three months, around 82 troops have also lost their lives in landmine blasts and clashes with militants and around 270 troops have been injured. The figures, however, have been hard to verify due to the remote nature of the operation-hit areas and the absence of independent media there.
The army launched the much-required operation on June 15 hoping to eradicate the Tehrik e Taliban - the mother organization of different insurgent groups in Pakistan. Although the army has managed to take three major towns, including Miranshah - the administrative headquarters of North Waziristan, it is still facing resistance in Shawwal, and in the Dattakhel valleys, where according to intelligence reports, hundreds of fleeing Taliban have taken refuge.
The United States, a close ally of Pakistan in its so-called war on terror, supports the North Waziristan operation, but alleges that the operation is not targeting the Haqqani Network, a group blamed for several brazen attacks on foreign forces in neighboring Afghanistan. Pakistan, however, denies the charge saying that all the Taliban groups are being targeted in the ongoing onslaught.
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