WORLD BRIEFING / PAKISTAN
Pakistani warplanes struck a stronghold of Taliban leader Baitullah Mahsud hours after President Asif Ali Zardari vowed to wage war against militancy “to the end.”
The airstrike on Makeen village came amid expectations of an imminent military offensive in the South Waziristan region, as the army enters the final stages of a campaign to rid the Swat Valley, northwest of the capital, of Taliban militants.
Bombs from the warplanes killed seven militants and wounded five, said two intelligence officials in the area who requested anonymity. Artillery also pounded militant positions in Mahsud territory overnight after a fort at Siplatoi came under rocket fire, intelligence officials said.
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