Army Captures Taliban Chief's Hometown

The army captured the strategically located hometown of Pakistan's Taliban chief Saturday after days of fierce fighting, officials said, snagging its first major prize in a U.S.-backed anti-Taliban offensive along the Afghan border.

Elsewhere in the northwest, a suspected U.S. missile strike killed 14 people, authorities said.

Pakistan's 8-day-old offensive in the Taliban and al Qaeda stronghold of South Waziristan is considered its most critical test yet in efforts to stop the spread of violent Islamist insurgency in the nuclear-armed country. It has prompted a wave of retaliatory attacks by militants this month that have killed some 200 people.

The final battle for Kotkai town killed 13 militants and two soldiers, said an army officer and an intelligence official. The military has begun to clear the town of landmines and roadside bombs planted by the insurgents.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media on the record.

Kotkai is symbolically important because it is the hometown of Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud. It also lies along the way to the major militant base of Sararogha, making it a strategically helpful catch.

South Waziristan is part of Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal belt, a rugged stretch of land along the Afghan frontier where al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden is rumored to be hiding.

The U.S. has launched scores of missile strikes in the region over the past year, killing several top militants. The latest one hit the tribal region of Bajur, local government official Mohammad Jamil said. He said the target appeared to be Faqir Mohammad, a prominent Taliban leader, but that he is believed to have escaped.

Access to the regions is severely restricted, meaning independently verifying the information is all but impossible.
By Associated Press Writer Asif Shahzad; AP writers Habib Khan in Khar, Riaz Khan in Peshawar, and Hussain Afzal in Parachinar contributed to this report