Purported terror facility targeted
Pakistani troops backed by missile-firing helicopters destroyed a purported Al Qaeda-linked training facility in a northwestern tribal area near the Afghan border today, killing 40 people, officials said.
The predawn attack targeted a religious school -- known as a madrasa -- holding about 80 militants in Chingai village near Khar, the main town in the Bajur tribal district, said army spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan. Another official reported that 80 people had died.
The bodies of tribesmen killed in the attack were lined in a field near the madrasa before an impromptu burial attended by thousands of locals.
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