"Pakistani troops capture a key militant stronghold; Dead include 95 civilians, officials say" by Munir Ahmad, Associated Press | October 26, 2008
LOI SAM, Pakistan - A two-month offensive by Pakistani forces has driven militants from a stronghold through which Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters had poured into neighboring Afghanistan to attack US troops, the army said yesterday.
But the operation claimed the lives of at least 95 civilians. Their deaths are a crucial issue here that observers warn can only increase sympathy for the militants. The military said its forces captured the village Loi Sam in the Bajur tribal region Friday after a long and bloody struggle. The town is at a vital intersection linking the border to three neighboring Pakistan regions.
And where the U.S. supply route runs through (how come the Zio-MSM doesn't tell you that?)
Major General Tariq Khan, who commands a paramilitary force, said it could still take six months to a year to gain complete control of Bajur.
(Blog author just shaking head in disgust at the lying)
Khan's count of 95 civilian deaths was the first official estimate of noncombatants killed in the fighting. He didn't say whether they were killed by militants or troops, though officials have acknowledged that artillery and air strikes have heavily damaged many residential areas. Nearly 200,000 people have fled the fighting, many of them to rough camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Once again, the Zionist, Muslim-hating press LOW-BALLS the figures: The Greatest Refugee Crisis You Never Heard Of
All compliments of the U.S.!
Reporters driven to Loi Sam yesterday saw damaged residential compounds, some of them connected by militant tunnels, lining both sides of the road. In Loi Sam itself, hardly a building had escaped. Houses, shops, and gas stations were badly damaged or destroyed. The only people on the debris-strewn streets were soldiers.
Major General Athar Abbas, an army spokesman, said victims would be compensated for the loss of their homes, crops, and the animals dying untended in the fields. Pakistan's government has promised to flood the border area with development work, much of it funded by Washington, to combat the misery and ignorance in which religious extremism has thrived. --more--"
First of all, misery and ignorance doesn't guarantee religious extremism -- just take a look at the RULING CLASS of ZIONISTS!!!!
And isn't it nice that America can DEVELOP PLACES we DESTROYED while NEGLECTING HOME, 'eh, Amurkns?
Maybe the answer is to STOP BOMBING THEM and STOP KILLING THEM -- especially since they NEVER DID ANYTHING TO US!!!!!!
