Posted by Mirra on March 27, 2004 at 15:43:06:
Wana, Pakistan, March 27: Al-Qaeda militants have executed eight Pakistani soldiers taken hostage in fighting near the Afghan border, officials said on Saturday, raising the temperature in an offensive on Islamic radicals.
The soldiers, their hands tied behind their backs and apparently shot at point-blank range, were found in a ditch on Friday near Wana, the capital of the South Waziristan area in Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal territories.
They were likely taken hostage and killed shortly after their convoy was ambushed on Monday, a Pakistan army official said. Twelve other soldiers died in the ambush.
The latest deaths could spark an outburst of anger against the al-Qaeda militants, many of them Uzbeks, Arabs and Chechens whose local support could be threatened by the brutal killing