Can you provide a credible link??? Preferably a neutral source. This is what I found.
Security forces kill 40 militants in Kurram Agency, Pakistan
Security forces killed 40 militants after helicopter gunships targeted their hideouts during a military operation in Kurram Agency on Wednesday. It may be noted here that the terrorists of Al-Qaeeda Linked Taliban were besieged the Kurram Agency from the last five years and killed and slaughtered thousands of innocent Shia Muslims and People of Parachinar to fulfill their evil desires.
(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Sources said security forces are heading towards Ali Sherzai and Zemashq areas after gaining control of the Dambaki area. Manato, which is a stronghold of terrorists, has also been cordoned off. So far, 550 families have registered themselves as IDPs. A number of families in Kurram Agency have been shifted to safer places. The Director General of the Inter-Services Public Relations Major General Athar Abbas praised the military for reclaiming territory previously under the control of terrorists.
Earlier this week, the Pakistan army announced that it had launched an air and ground offensive in Kurram region on the Afghan border.
Army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas gave few details of the operation in Kurram — a tribal region that had become increasingly used as a refuge for militants.
But he said the offensive aimed to reopen the road to Parachinar, a Shia majority town on the Afghan border that had been virtually cut off from the rest of Pakistan for years and was facing increasing attacks fromTaliban militants.
“The operation has been launched with the aim of clearing the region of militants who have indulged in kidnapping and suicide attacks on security installations and forces there,” Abbas said. Pakistan launches military operation in Kurram Agency.
The Pakistan army said on Monday it had launched an air and ground offensive in Kurram region on the Afghan border, its first major military operation since the May 2 killing of Osama bin Laden.
Army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas gave few details of the operation in Kurram — a tribal region that had become increasingly used as a refuge for al Qaeda-linked militants.
But he said the offensive aimed to reopen the road to Parachinar, a Shia majority town on the Afghan border that had been virtually cut off from the rest of Pakistan for years and was facing increasing attacks from Sunni militants.
“The operation has been launched with the aim of clearing the region of militants who have indulged in kidnapping and suicide attacks on security installations and forces there,” Abbas said.
The offensive came days after a senior militant commander in Kurram deserted from the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) or Pakistani Taliban.
Commander Fazal Saeed Haqqani said he disagreed with attacks on Pakistani security forces and civilians.
The Afghan Taliban faction, the Haqqani network, had been involved in securing a peace deal for Kurram last year between militants and local Shia tribesmen, security officials and tribesmen said at the time.
But that deal fell apart as locals complained of growing attacks and isolation from the rest of the country.
With army convoys travelling between Parachinar and the provincial capital, Peshawar, even coming under attack, local people had been forced to travel in and out via Afghanistan.
Many militants had taken refuge in Kurram fleeing either U.S. drone bomb attacks in neighbouring North Waziristan or Pakistan military operations elsewhere.
Black spot
“I think Kurram had become a black spot for the Pakistan army,” security analyst Imtiaz Gul said.
“People have been mostly using Afghanistan for getting to and from Parachinar, and there’s been a lot of killings going on between the Sunnis and the Shia groups. So probably they think it’s about time to do something.” Kurram is strategically important for Pakistan, the militants and the United States.
It lies opposite Afghanistan’s Paktia, Nangarhar and Khost provinces and is next door to North Waziristan, the main base of al Qaeda-linked militants in Pakistan.
Parachinar is just over the mountains from Tora Bora, Afghanistan, which U.S. and Afghan forces assaulted after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in pursuit of bin Laden.
Pakistani forces have launched many offensives in the northwest against militants, but have failed to weaken their resolve.
Since bin Laden’s death, the TTP has carried out suicide bombings, assaulting a naval base in Pakistan’s biggest city, Karachi, and deploying hundreds of fighters in large-scale attacks on security forces.
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Security forces kill 40 militants in Kurram Agency, Pakistan
