US-Nato strikes in Shawal also injured six soldiers

US-Nato strikes in Shawal also injured six soldiers

By our correspondent

PESHAWAR: Six Army soldiers were among the 15 persons who sustained injuries in the bombing and shelling by US-led coalition forces in Shawal valley in North Waziristan last Saturday.This fact wasn’t known or reported until now. But official sources in North Waziristan told The News on Monday that bombs and artillery shells fired from Afghanistan’s territory also hit a joint Pakistan Army and paramilitary Frontier Corps post near the border in Shawal valley. The post was damaged and six soldiers deployed there were injured.Requesting anonymity, a government official said the six wounded soldiers and nine civilians injured in the bombing by US-led coalition warplanes and artillery and mortar shelling were evacuated to Bannu in helicopter and admitted to a military hospital there. Some of the injured were stated to be in critical condition.The cross-border raid by US and Nato forces in the Mana and Mangratay areas of Shawal valley killed about a dozen people, including women and children. Also last Saturday, US-manufactured jet-fighters and Apache helicopters attacked the Tor Jawar village near the border town of Angoor Adda in South Waziristan and killed 21 people, all villagers and including women and children. Almost 40 people were injured in the attack. The Pakistan government ignored the violation of its borders twice that day and didn’t even acknowledge that a Pakistani village had been bombed by US-led coalition aircraft and 21 to 25 people had been killed.