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Anti al-Qaeda operation concludes: spokesman

IRNA

Islamabad, Oct 3, IRNA -- Pakistan`s Military spokesman, Maj. General 
Shaukat Sultan, Friday said the operation against al-Qaeda suspects 
in tribal area has been completed, saying "no terrorist has been left"
in the area. 
"We are questioning the arrested suspects," Sultan told the 
state-run television. 
The spokesman said that 8 suspects were killed and 18 arrested 
during the Thursday`s 12-hour operation in South Waziristan tribal 
belt, bordering Afghanistan. 
Two Pakistani soldiers were killed and two others injured in the 
operation, the first biggest in tribal areas. 
The spokesman declined to identify those killed and arrested, 
saying their identities could not be disclosed at present. 
He denied reports about civilian casualties during the operation. 
Meanwhile, the spokesman said he cannot rule out possibility of 
operations like it in South Waziristan in future. 
He said he thinks that the suspects were involved in attacks on 
the coalition forces in Afghanistan but he is not fully sure about 
that. 
He said ten women and children came out of the hideouts of the 
suspects and were taken into custody without any harm. 
He said the army tried to arrest the suspects without any 
casualties or least casualties, adding that force was used to the 
minimum and no overwhelming force was employed in the operation. 
The spokesman said there is possibility of the presence of a small
number of al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects in the tribal areas. 
To another question he said, over twenty-five thousand troops 
have been deployed in the area to hunt down al-Qaeda and Taliban 
suspects. 
TK/TSH/210 
End