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Pakistani Tribes Threaten Rebellion
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Tribesmen shout slogans against the Wana operation (AFP)
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PESHAWAR,
Pakistan, March 23 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Pakistani
tribesmen on Tuesday, March 23, threatened a rebellion against army
troops engaged in the country's biggest and bloodiest assault on
Al-Qaeda suspects and their tribal allies.
"There
is a possibility of rebellion by tribal people if the government
continues with such actions in the tribal areas," Bazar Gul,
president of the Khyber Union tribal organization, told a rally in
Bara, some 10 kilometers southwest of Peshawar.
Some
1,000 tribesmen blocked the main Bara road for over one hour and
torched an effigy of U.S. President George W. Bush, chanting
"Stop the military operation in Wana" and "Down with
America
", reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"The
Wana operation is being carried out on American orders and we demand
that all American agents should leave
Pakistan
," Abdul Wadood Afridi, the local head of Al-Jamah El-Islamiya's
political party, said during the rally.
Bara
lies some 210 kilometers northeast of Wana where at least 123 people
have been arrested, among them local Pashtun tribesmen, Chechens,
Uzbeks and Arabs.
Tribesmen
from the Yargulkhel clan, a sub-tribe of the independent Pashtun
tribes who live on both sides of the 2,500-kilometer
Pakistan-Afghanistan frontier, are reportedly protecting and fighting
alongside hundreds of Al-Qaeda-linked militants.
The
Yargulkhel fighters have been trapped in a cordon of several thousand
army and paramilitary troops since Thursday, March 16, but have been
putting up fierce resistance.
Fighting
was suspended early Monday, March 22, to allow a delegation of 20
elders to travel to the besieged villages to try to convince
Yargulkhel tribesmen to hand over the suspected fugitives.
The
assault is the largest ever mounted by Pakistani troops since they
entered the once
no-go semi-autonomous tribal zone in the mountains along the
Afghan borders some two years ago.
The
resistance is the fiercest ever encountered, and led some officials to
suggest a "high value target", possibly Al-Qaeda number two
Ayman Al-Zawahri, was being protected.
However,
no one ever saw Al-Zawahri, and regional experts believe the high
value target is instead probably an Uzbek or Chechen leader.
A
Taliban spokesman told AFP Friday, March 19, that Al-Qaeda leader
Osama bin Laden and Zawahri were
safe and in Afghanistan, not neighboring
Pakistan
.
The
army announced Monday that the target may have escaped through a
newly-built tunnel uncovered amid the temporary lull.
Brigadier
Mehmood Shah, chief of security for the northwest tribal region, told
reporters the tunnel ran from the homes of two tribesmen and emerged
at a stream two kilometers away.
Pakistani
Casualties
The
demonstration came as Pakistani security officials admitted Tuesday
that at least 11 army soldiers were killed in two attacks by unknown
people.
Rockets
were fired at dawn Tuesday on an army camp in the town of
Parachinar
, 150 kilometers northeast of Wana, killing three soldiers and
wounding four, a security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
On
Monday, eight soldiers were killed when their convoy was ambushed 30
kilometers from Wana.
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