Pakistan launches airstrikes after bases attacked…
ISLAMABAD – Militants used mortars, rockets and an anti-aircraft gun to attack military positions in northwestern Pakistan on Monday and were pummeled in response by airstrikes that killed at least 25 people, officials said.
It was the latest violence to break out in the tribal region on the Afghan border ahead of a major military offensive against Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, who is accused of ordering a campaign of suicide attacks as part of an insurgency to destabilize the government.
Spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas on Monday offered the most detailed information yet about the military’s goals for the operation against Mehsud in South Waziristan, which is also a potential hiding place of al-Qaida and Afghan Taliban leaders.
“Our effort is to break his network, the classes and training schools for suicide bombers running there,” Abbas told reporters. “To dismantle that … and particularly the foreigners, who are in big numbers with him.”
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