Pakistani Helicopter Gunships Kill 4 Militants

Tuesday´s raid targeted militant positions at the village of Sambit, according to another military official.

Pakistani helicopter gunships killed four militants and destroyed bunkers and ammunition dumps at a village in a northwestern region where a pro-Taliban rebel has led an insurrection, the military said on Tuesday.

More than 200 people have been killed in clashes between fighters commanded by Maulana Fazlullah and security forces over the past few weeks in Swat, a picturesque, mountainous district of North West Frontier Province (NWFP) that was formerly a tourist haven.

The focus came off the violence in Swat after President Pervez Musharraf declared emergency rule and suspended the constitution on Nov. 3, but military spokesman Major-General Waheed Arshad said security forces were keeping up pressure on Fazlullah's followers.

"We have used helicopter gunships in the last few days to target militant positions and their bunkers," he said.

Tuesday's raid targeted militant positions at the village of Sambit, according to another military official.

Five more militants were wounded in another clash in the area, while paramilitary troops captured five fighters, along with arms and explosives, at a third village.

Lieutenant-General Mohammad Masood Aslam, the top military commander in NWFP, said there were between 500 and 800 foreign militants based in Swat, but did not say whether there was any well known figure among them.

Swat has sometimes figured in the perennial guessing game of security analysts: "Where is Osama bin Laden?". But so too have many other places along Pakistan's long, rugged border with Afghanistan.

Speaking to reporters in Peshawar, the capital of NWFP, Aslam said the government would use "selective and precise" force in Swat to avoid collateral damage.

"We cannot allow militants to dictate their terms at gunpoint," Aslam said.