Disturbing News

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http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/10/29/pakistan.militants.ap/ index.html

'Al Qaeda school' attack: 80 dead
October 30, 2006

CHINGAI, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistani troops backed by missile-firing
helicopters on Monday launched their deadliest attack ever against suspected militants, killing 80 and destroying a purported al Qaeda-linked training facility, the military said.

If correct, the death toll in the remote tribal-dominated Bajur district, close to the Afghan border, would be the highest ever for any single military operation targeting suspected Islamic militants in Pakistan.

But local leaders and witnesses said all those slain were students and teachers in a pre-dawn missile attack on a religious school -- known as a madrassa -- in Chingai village, near Bajur's main town of Khar.

The raid sparked angry protests in Chingai, Khar and other Bajur towns as local tribesmen and political leaders denounced the pro-U.S. Pakistani military, saying innocent civilians -- not terrorists -- were killed.

The tensions threatened to derail peace efforts between government officials and leaders in this tribal region, which has long been a hive of militant activity opposed to Pakistani troops in the area and U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

Helicopter gunships fired four to five missiles into the madrassa, where up to 80 people were believed to have been, said army spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan. The blasts tore apart the building and all inside, spraying body parts, blood and debris across a wide area.

Sultan said initial estimates, based on intelligence sources on the ground, indicate the attack killed about 80 suspected militants from Pakistan and other countries. It was not immediately possible to independently verify the number.

"These militants were involved in actions inside Pakistan and probably in Afghanistan," Sultan told The Associated Press.

Sultan said the madrassa was used as a front to train militants and the attack was launched after those in charge of the building refused warnings by the military during the past few weeks to close it down.

Several hours after the attack, the bodies of 20 killed tribesmen were lined in a field near the madrassa before an impromptu burial attended by thousands of angry locals, according to an AP reporter at the scene.

At the madrassa, dozens of villagers collected the remains of another 30 bodies from the rubble of the building, placing the mutilated parts of each body into separate large plastic bags normally used to hold fertilizer.

"We heard helicopters flying in and then heard bombs," said one of the villagers, Haji Youssef. "We were all saddened by what we have seen."

Thousands of people traveled from nearby villages to inspect the destroyed madrassa, some crying and others chanting "Long live Islam." The blast leveled the building, tearing mattresses and scattering Islamic books, including copies of the Quran.

In Khar, some 2,000 tribesmen and shopkeepers marched through the main street and railed against Pakistan's President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and U.S. President George W. Bush. "Death to Musharraf, Death to Bush," the procession chanted.

Local lawmakers resigned from their posts and called for nationwide protests to condemn the attack.

Pakistan's military has been trying to stamp out pro-al Qaeda and Taliban terrorists operating inside this semiautonomous tribal-dominated region and against U.S. and Afghan forces across the poorly marked Pakistan-Afghan frontier, where al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is believed to be at large.

The remote Bajur region borders Afghanistan's volatile Kunar province and militant groups are believed to routinely smuggle fighters, weapons and supplies across the frontier.

Among the dead was Liaquat Hussain, a local Islamic cleric who ran the madrassa and is believed to have been sheltering al Qaeda militants, and several of his aides, locals said.

Siraj ul-Haq, a Cabinet minister from the North West Frontier Province, condemned the attack and announced he would resign in protest.

"The government has launched an attack during the night, which is against Islam and the traditions of the area," ul-Haq told the AP during the funeral. "They (the victims) were not given any warning. This was an unprovoked attack on a madrassa."

Ul-Haq, who belongs to the powerful Islamic political party, Jamaat-e-Islami, said protests would be staged throughout the northern tribal region on Tuesday to denounce the attack.

The attack came two days after 5,000 pro-Taliban tribesmen held an anti-American rally near the Bajur village of Damadola, close to where a U.S. missile attack in January purportedly targeted -- and missed -- al Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri, but killed several al-Qaeda members and civilians.

It also came on the day a peace deal was expected to be signed between Bajur tribal leaders and the military along the lines of an accord signed earlier this year in nearby North Waziristan, which aims at stopping militants operating in the area and crossing into Afghanistan.

At least three young men from the madrassa were brought to Khar's main hospital in critical condition, said a doctor at the hospital, Imran Khan.

A senior intelligence official in Bajur also said a local al Qaeda leader who led Saturday's rally, Faqir Mohammed, was believed to have been inside the madrassa. It was unclear if Mohammed was among those killed.

Pakistan became a key U.S. ally in its war on terror after the Sept. 11 attacks and has deployed about 80,000 soldiers in the tribal region to flush out Taliban and al Qaeda militants hiding there.

Don't forget the pipelines or the holocaust against black moustaches.