Pakistan's military has dispatched helicopter gun ships to the volatile northwest in support of thousands of angry tribesmen who have laid siege to a group of Taleban fighters, police said Tuesday. The citizens' militia sprang up over the weekend to avenge a deadly suicide bombing at a mosque in Upper Dir district and appeared unwilling to stop pursuing the fighters, underscoring the rising anti-Taleban sentiment in much of Pakistan. The tribesmen's numbers have steadily risen to more than 2,000, with residents of two villages and a town joining them Tuesday, area police official Atlas Khan said. “People back in the villages, especially children, are fetching them food and other supplies. They are doing it because they think the fighters are fighting for their sake, they think it is their common war,” Khan said. He confirmed media reports that helicopter gun ships struck two villages, Shatkas and Ghazi Gay, where the militants have strongholds, late Monday and Tuesday morning. Some of the Taleban were blocked Tuesday when they tried to get away to nearby Malik Bai village, which the tribesmen also encircled, police said. The growing pressure on militants who have held sway in parts of Pakistan's northwest comes as the army bears down on their one-time sanctuary in the Swat Valley. Talk has also turned to the possibility of another operation against Al-Qaeda and Taleban fighters in the nearby tribal belt along the country's border with Afghanistan, something US officials privately say they would like to see. Upper Dir district police Chief Ejaz Ahmad said some 200 militants, including foreigners, were putting up tough resistance, with sporadic fighting continuing. “Reports said that the foreigners among them are around 20 to 25. Most of them are Afghans, but some of them are Central Asians and Arabs too,” Ahmad said. Ahmad said the militia was foiling the fighters' efforts to flee. “Villagers have encircled them completely, and they cannot run away,” he said.
