Pakistan Army Smashes Al-Qaida Hideouts

Always be skeptical when we're talking about Pakistan, but if true, it certainly is good news. No word on whether any weddings or funerals were disrupted.

Pakistan's army destroyed suspected al-Qaida hideouts in an airstrike near the Afghan border on Tuesday, killing 10 people, officials said.

The army and a senior local official said the dead were militants, and included some foreigners, but a resident said the slain men were Afghan laborers.

The raid in South Waziristan came days after the U.S. intelligence chief said leaders of both al-Qaida and Afghanistan's former ruling Taliban militia were finding shelter in Pakistan's lawless frontier areas.

An army statement said intelligence sources confirmed the presence of 25 to 30 foreign terrorists and their local facilitators occupying five compounds in the area of Zamzola - a village about two miles from the frontier.

Pakistani forces backed by helicopter gunships attacked them, destroying three of the compounds.

"We believe most of them were killed," said army spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan.