Pakistan condemns soldiers' execution

Pakistan condemned yesterday the "cold-blooded murder" of eight soldiers executed after being ambushed while battling militants near the Afghan border. The soldiers, their hands tied behind their backs and shot in the head at point-blank range, were found in a ditch on Friday near Wana, the capital of the South Waziristan area in Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal territories.

"It was a cold-blooded murder," said Major-General Shaukat Sultan, the army's spokesman. "We have identified the local and foreign militants and now we are chasing them. It was the worst kind of terrorism,"

President Pervez Musharraf said his government was determined to act strongly against Al Qaeda fighters, blaming them for a spate of attacks across the country including two attempts on his life in December. "We have to act, and we will act strongly, we will not allow Pakistan to be damaged," he told cadets at a military college near Islamabad.

More than 100 people have been killed since March 16, when paramilitary forces hunting militants linked to Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden ran into a hail of bullets as they approached a suspect's house in the rugged South Waziristan region.

The battle, involving 5,000 troops, is Pakistan's biggest in the region and comes after Musharraf narrowly escaped two assassination attempts in December.

"These very foreigners who are living there, let me also say that the suicide attacks on me, the mastermind is certainly Al Qaeda, these people, whether you call them Al Qaeda or whatever, they are the mastermind," Musharraf said. "Most of the bombings that have taken place in Pakistan ... have been masterminded by these people."

Pakistan, while supporting the US war on terror, had come under pressure for not doing enough to root out militants from its remote border mountains. The military said the operation in South Waziristan was in its final stages and its objectives had been largely achieved.

"A hardened den of miscreants has been completely dismantled," the military said in a statement, adding that more than 160 suspected militants had been detained and a large quantity of arms and other equipment seized.

"Intelligence sources and other information gathered from those apprehended during the operation indicate that over 60 miscreants have been killed, while scores of them have been injured since March 16." The military said sources have confirmed that among those injured was Tahir Yuldashev, who it identified as "one of the top Al Qaeda leaders".

Yuldashev is the leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and was accused of a series of bomb blasts in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, in 1999. He was known to have taken refuge in the semi-autonomous Pakistani tribal areas.

Earlier, Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat said four wanted Pakistani tribesmen, accused of giving shelter to the foreign militants in South Waziristan, had been arrested. Hayat did not give details of the arrest of the four, including notorious fighter Nek Mohammed.

The eight soldiers were likely killed shortly after their convoy was ambushed last Monday, an army official said. Twelve other soldiers were killed in the ambush.

The killings could spark an outburst of anger against foreign Al Qaeda militants, some of whom battled Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the Eightees and have been long been seen as heroes of Islam by the devout Muslim tribesmen.

Twelve soldiers and two officials captured by the militants when the fighting first erupted, will be released, said a tribal elder who has been negotiating with the militants.