Taleban dead returned to Pakistan

By M Ilyas Khan
BBC News, Karachi

Pro-Taleban fighters in Pakistan have brought back the bodies of at least nine comrades killed in Afghanistan, officials and witnesses say.

Officials in South Waziristan tribal district quote militants as saying that a total of 12 tribal fighters were killed in an air attack.

The fighters are loyal to a group of Taleban fighters led by a commander called Mullah Nazir.

Officials say a deputy of Mullah Nazir is among the dead.

Infiltrated

It is not clear when the fighters were killed.

Sources in South Waziristan told the BBC Urdu service that the dead men were from a group of about 30 fighters that crossed over into Afghanistan over three weeks ago.

The army was reported to have helped Mullah Nazir last year

They say the group attacked a convoy of coalition troops in the Orgun area of Paktika province and were then hit by a coalition aircraft.

Some fighters from among the group are reported to have been captured.

The surviving Taleban managed to bring nine of the 12 bodies to Wana, the main town in South Waziristan.

Mullah Nazir controls the Ahmadzai Wazir tribal territory in South Waziristan.

He was in the limelight in the spring of 2007 when he launched an armed campaign to evict Central Asian fighters linked to al-Qaeda from his area.

According to some reports, the campaign was given artillery support by Pakistani troops based in a garrison in Wana.

Another pro-Taleban commander in South Waziristan, Baitullah Mehsud, controls the Mehsud tribal territory of the district.

Unlike the Wazir tribe, the Mehsud land does not share border with Afghanistan.

While Baitullah Mehsud is often accused of sending militants to fight the coalition forces in Afghanistan, this is the first reported instance in a year in which fighters loyal to Mullah Nazir are reported to have infiltrated Afghanistan.