The Battle of Mirali was a bloody military engagement occurred between 7 October and 10 October 2007 and involved Taliban militants and Pakistani soldiers around the town of
Mirali,
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...
(
North
North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.
Etymology
The word ''north ...
Waziristan
Waziristan (Pashto and ur, , "land of the Wazir") is a mountainous region covering the former FATA agencies of North Waziristan and South Waziristan which are now districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Waziristan covers some . ...
), the second biggest town in the semi-autonomous region on the border with
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
.
Timeline of the battle
According to the
Pakistani Armed Forces, the clashes broke out on 7 October after militants set off
improvised explosive device
An improvised explosive device (IED) is a bomb constructed and deployed in ways other than in conventional military action. It may be constructed of conventional military explosives, such as an artillery shell, attached to a detonating mecha ...
s and conducted
ambush
An ambush is a long-established military tactic in which a combatant uses an advantage of concealment or the element of surprise to attack unsuspecting enemy combatants from concealed positions, such as among dense underbrush or behind mo ...
es on a Pakistani convoy, near the town of
Mirali. The subsequent engagements killed nearly 200 people. The army says the casualties were militants and soldiers but local people reported at least ten civilians were among the dead. Hundreds of people fled Mirali after more than 50 houses were damaged in the fighting.
After a number of attacks on military convoys, near Mirali, the Pakistan Army sent
helicopter gunships and Pakistan Air Force
jet fighter
Fighter aircraft are fixed-wing military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air superiority of the battlespace. Domination of the airspace above a battlefield ...
s to target suspected militant positions in several villages around that region.
On 9 October, according to the Pakistani Army, military aircraft struck "one or two places" near Mirali. There were confirmed reports that about 50 militants had been killed.
Truce
On 15 October, Pakistani soldiers and tribal fighters in the northwestern province of North Waziristan agreed to a truce, and the Pakistani forces lifted the curfew over the area. This truce was over by the end of the month.
[ ]
See also
*
List of drone strikes in Pakistan
References
{{Reflist
External links
Pakistani border death toll rises(BBC)
Mir Ali
2007 in Pakistan
Mir Ali
Mir Ali
Waziristan
October 2007 events in Pakistan