Pakistan - 'Major al Qaeda base' destroyed

CNN reports.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistan has destroyed a major suspected al Qaeda hideout and arrested 21 alleged militants in an operation involving helicopter gunships and thousands of troops in a remote northwestern tribal region near Afghanistan, officials said.

Lt. Gen. Safdar Hussain, the top army commander responsible for anti-terrorism operations in northwestern Pakistan, told reporters Tuesday that foreigners and "some important men are included among the captured people," although he refused to reveal their identities or nationalities.

The hideout appeared to be a fairly sophisticated outpost, Hussain said, with communications equipment to contact militants in Afghanistan, a cache of bombs, detonators and rockets, and a tiny Chinese-made drone aircraft used for surveillance.

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