http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/ny-wopaki283726020mar28,0,1387867.story?coll=ny-worldnews-headlinesArmy claiming it's ousted militants from part of nation, but the bloody road to victory carries a political toll
WANA, Pakistan - Pakistan claimed yesterday to have won a victory in the past two weeks of fighting in the South Waziristan region, near the Afghan border, but it condemned the executions of eight soldiers who were captured by militants linked to al-Qaida.
The army suggested it had destroyed a major group of Islamic militant fighters linked to al-Qaida in South Waziristan, but independent analysts said a victory, if any, may be Pyrrhic for its high cost in Pakistani casualties and in political support for the government.
"As a military operation, it did not go well at all," Talat Masood, a Pakistani military and political analyst, told The Associated Press. He said the army had been unprepared for an entrenched militant force in South Waziristan and that led to the deaths of about 50 soldiers, he said. At least a dozen civilians have died, and the army's unprecedented strike into the normally self-governing tribal zone has inflamed passions among tribe members and religious hard-liners.
The executed soldiers were found in a ditch Friday, their hands tied behind their backs and shot in the head at point-blank range. "It was a cold-blooded murder," said Maj.-Gen. Shaukat Sultan, the army's spokesman.
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