THREE U. S. "SPIES" KILLED

Published: Tuesday, 13 September, 2005, 08:32 AM Doha Time

MIRANSHAH: Militants have killed three people accused of being spies for the US in a lawless Pakistani tribal region bordering Afghanistan, local officials said yesterday.

The attackers slit their throats and left a note in the local Pashtu language saying “anyone working as an American spy will meet the same fate,” the official speaking on condition of anonymity said.

Their bodies were found yesterday in a drain in the town of Tappi, 16km east of Miranshah, capital of the semi-autonomous North Waziristan region.

Insurgents in the rugged tribal areas, where Pakistani forces last year fought pitched battles with suspected Al Qaeda militants, have issued a hit-list of 28 local elders whom they called “government spies.”

In July, a Pakistani intelligence official was shot dead in nearby Mir Ali town, while another two tribesmen were killed in the same area in May for allegedly spying for the US.

Separately, Pakistani security forces yesterday arrested 15 suspected militants wanted for attacks on security forces and seized explosives and weapons near Miranshah, a military statement said.

Twelve men surrendered without resistance after troops besieged an Islamic seminary and a house in the town of Dandi Darbakhel belonging to the relatives of a fugitive former commander in Afghanistan’s ousted Taliban movement.

The commander, Jalaluddin Haqqani, was a former anti-Soviet fighter who later served as the Taliban’s minister for frontier regions till the hardline regime was ousted by US-led forces in late 2001.

Two suspects were captured in a raid on a separate house, while the other was arrested in Mir Ali.

“More arrests are expected as the operation is still under way in which gunship helicopters are taking part,” the statement said.

The commander of Pakistan’s forces in the hunt for Al Qaeda-linked militants in the area, Lieutenant General Safdar Hussain, was in the region to “personally supervise” operation, it said.

Pakistan deployed tens of thousands of troops into the tribal areas in 2004 to crack down on militants who fled from Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban regime. - AFP