Qaeda hits home, executes 8 Pak soldiers

‘‘Our response will be well thought out and it has to be based on pragmatism rather than any kind of emotional outburst,’’ he said. ‘‘We would not like innocent civilians to get killed at the same time. We have identified the local and foreign militants and now we are chasing them,’’ he said.

Meanwhile, in an interview to America’s ABC television, President Pervez Musharraf pledged to eliminate Al Qaeda and said that the terror networks’ second-in-command, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, was on the run. ‘‘I would like to say that I’m going to eliminate them,’’ he said yesterday, referring to Zawahiri and Al Qaeda loyalists.

The operation against foreign militants has proved a demoralising embarrassment for Pakistan’s Army. While several dozen militants have been killed, and nearly 200 taken prisoners, the government doesn’t appear to have captured the high-profile target — possibly Zawahiri — it had claimed last week to have surrounded. It is not clear if Zawahiri escaped through tunnels emanating from the compound or if he was never surrounded at all.

At least 30 security personnel have been killed in the operation, according to government officials. Thousands of people have fled their homes in the tribal areas, and resentment against the army is prompting fears that the violence could spread.

Islamist parties staged protests in cities throughout the country on Friday, while criticism of the operation has been rising in the news media and, more important, among former military officials. One of them, a former major-general, Anwar Sher, said on Friday, ‘‘Because of our inefficiency we lost many soldiers.’’

The operation began days before the US Secretary of State Colin L. Powell visited Islamabad with the aim to secure greater cooperation in cracking down militants using the tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan.

Pakistani forces met unexpected resistance when they tried to flush out foreign militants, and events quickly escalated because of the belief that troops had surrounded Zawahri. The corps commander in Peshawar, Lt. Gen. Safdar Hussain, had said on Thursday that he planned to wind up the operation by Saturday. ‘‘We have achieved our objective of destroying and denying sanctuary to militants,’’ he said.

An official said the army had completed 75 per cent of the work involving demolition of houses of suspected militants. ‘‘They would leave the area the moment they demolish the remaining targeted houses there,’’ the official said.