Pakistan mosque siege ends

Pakistani security forces have snuffed out the last pockets of resistance at the radical Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque in Islamabad.This comes a day after an assault at the mosque and school complex that left rebel pro-Taliban cleric Abdul Rashid Ghaz and more than 50 of his followers dead.Major-General Waheed Arshad said he had no report of women or children among the dead in Tuesday's assault, carried out by 164 commandos.Three militants were killed in an exchange of fire overnight and several militants and members of the security forces were wounded in morning clashes.Occasional explosions rang out from the fortified mosque-school complex as troops destroyed booby-traps and mines.Nine members of the security forces were killed and 29 wounded in Operation Silence, the codename for the final assault.Heavy casualties, especially among women and children, would be bad for President Pervez Musharraf, who is going through arguably the worst patch of his eight years in power.Elections are due later this year and the general, who came to power in a 1999 coup, is seeking a second five-year term.More than 80 people have already been killed since July 3, when street clashes between security forces and the followers of the mosque's hardline clerics erupted.The extremists had been using the mosque as a base to send out radicalised students to enforce their version of Islamic morality, including abducting alleged prostitutes and trying to "re-educate" them at the mosque.© Independent Television News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.

ITN | July 11, 2007

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