Monday, July 27, 2009

Military hits ‘suicide bomb centre’, kills 20: official





PESHAWAR: Attack helicopters Monday killed 20 militants and destroyed four hideouts, including a training centre for suicide bombers in the northwest tribal belt, the paramilitary said.

The operation was carried out in Tirah valley, 35 kilometres (21 miles) southwest of Landi Kotal, the main town in the Khyber tribal region that straddles a main supply route for Nato troops in Afghanistan.

‘Military helicopters shelled militant hideouts Monday afternoon killing 20 rebels and destroying four of their hideouts,’ a spokesman for the paramilitary Frontier Corps, Major Fazal-ul-Rehman, told AFP.

He said that the hideouts included a training centre where rebels used to train suicide bombers and foot soldiers, adding that the air strikes were ordered after an intelligence tip-off.

Death tolls released by government are impossible to confirm in areas that are remote and largely cut off from independent media coverage.

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