DTN News: Pakistan TODAY February 21, 2010 ~ Pakistan Forces Raided Militants Hideouts Near Afghan Border

DTN News: Pakistan TODAY February 21, 2010 ~ Pakistan Forces Raided Militants Hideouts Near Afghan Border *Source: DTN News (NSI News Source Info) PESHAWAR, Pakistan - February 21, 2010: A Pakistani air strike killed 30 militants in mountains on the Afghan border yesterday, the military said, as the NATO' offensive against the Taliban continued in Afghanistan itself.A police commando runs to secure a position on a rooftop at the site of a shooting as two pro-Taliban militants suspected of involvement in several high-profiles attacks in Pakistan were killed in a shoot out with police near Afghan border. Pakistani security forces launched a major campaign against the Al-Qa'ida-backed Pakistani Taliban in their main haven of South Waziristan in October and the military has captured most militant bases in the region. Yesterday's air raid was in Shawal, a militant bastion near the border of the South and North Waziristan regions, where many Taliban are believed to have sought refuge. Al-Qa'ida militants are also known to be in the area. The security forces, as well as attacking indigenous Taliban who are trying to bring down the U.S.-backed government, have also stepped up action against Afghan Taliban in Pakistan, arresting at least three senior members, including their No. 2 man, this month. "The hideout in Shawal was targeted after we were tipped off that terrorists were hiding in the mountains," a military spokesman said, adding 30 of them had been killed. There was no independent verification. Apart from the Afghan campaign, the United States has also been attacking militants in northwestern Pakistan with missile-firing unmanned drone aircraft. A son of the leader of a major Afghan Taliban faction attacking Western forces in Afghanistan was killed in a strike by a drone in North Waziristan on Thursday. The killing of Mohammad Haqqani, son of Afghan guerrilla commander Jalaluddin Haqqani, came days after the arrest of the Afghan Taliban's top military strategist, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, in a joint Pakistani-U.S. operation in Karachi. On Wednesday, the son of an Egyptian-born Canadian militant was killed in a U.S. drone attack in North Waziristan, Pakistani security officials and Taliban said. They identified the dead man as Mansoor and said he was the son of Al-Qa'ida figure Ahmed Said Khadr, nicknamed al-Canadi, "the Canadian." Khadr was killed in a Pakistani army attack in South Waziristan in 2003.