Pakistan: 80 Killed in Air Strikes

Pakistan's military is reporting that 80 people have been killed in air strikes launched early Sunday in response to last week's attacks on the Karachi airport that left 36 dead. The military also said that one of the main orchestrators in the Karachi attack, Abu Abdur Rehman Almani, who is a commander of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, was killed in the strike. Local officials actually believe more than 100 suspected militants were killed altogether in the attacks that started around 1:30 a.m. The strikes targeted the Degan area of North Waziristan’s Datta Khel subdivision, which is known as a hideout for Al Qaeda. In a statement, the Pakistani army said “There were confirmed reports of presence of foreign and local terrorists in these hideouts who were linked in planning of Karachi airport attack. Reportedly over 50 Terrorists, mostly Uzbek foreigners are killed in the strikes.” Later on Sunday, Mirali, a town in North Waziristan, was hit by a bomb, which some suspect was a counter-response by militants. Civilians have been encouraged to evacuate the region, and reportedly 47,000 have fled their villages.