Red Mosque Battle Finally Over - Death Toll Unknown
The group of "brave" jihadis using women and children as human shields appear to have finally been captured or killed during an almost two day long battle. Pakistani officials are reporting at least 60 militants are dead. But they are also warning that the toll could be much higher. It is not known how many hostages died. It is known that the pro-taliban head cleric of the mosque is one of the dead.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, July 11 — A commando raid that was expected to be a quick operation to subdue Islamic radicals in the Red Mosque turned into a marathon battle Tuesday and Wednesday, with elite Pakistani forces sweeping through underground bunkers in more than 20 hours of intense combat.
Military officials said the fighting left at least eight commandos and 60 radicals dead — including the firebrand cleric at the center of standoff — but they also suggested the toll might ultimately prove far higher. Among the hundreds of people estimated to be in the mosque when the raid began, only 83 made it out alive, most of them women and children.
Authorities had released no information about the fate of the others as of Wednesday morning, and reporters were barred from visiting local hospitals. Many of the missing were believed to be civilians who had been held hostage.
The Pakistani government and the mosque's pro-Taliban leadership had been locked in a standoff for eight days after a street clash last Tuesday that left more than 20 people dead. Mosque leaders had been provoking the government for months by abducting alleged prostitutes and police officers, and by threatening music store owners. The mosque's clerics, a pair of brothers, said they wanted to create a theocracy in Pakistan based on Islamic law.
I saw an obituary for the dead "fiery" cleric yesterday that essentially said that the man had pushed too hard for the changes he wanted. Not one, single word in it condemned the coward for hiding behind women and children. Not one. Only a very mild disapproval that he had taken the law into his own hands. Not even an admission that what the cleric was doing was criminal and meant to topple a government.
War, World news | Gaius Wednesday, 11 July , 2007
