Pakistan troops raid reported terrorist camp

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ISLAMABAD — Pakistani troops raided a camp reportedly used by the group India blames for last month's massacre in Mumbai, Pakistani military sources said Dec. 8.

The raid took place near Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, the sources said. One of the sources told CNN that several people were arrested as part of the operation, but no details were released.

It is the first sign of government action against Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT), the Islamic militant group India says was behind the killings, over three days, of more than 160 people in Mumbai at the end of November.

Indian authorities say the sole surviving gunman in the attacks told investigators he was trained by LeT, which was banned following a 2001 attack on the Indian parliament that brought the nuclear-armed rivals to the brink of war.

The camp raided Dec. 8 was owned by Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a charity formed after the ban. The group says it uses the site as an office for relief work in an area hit by a major earthquake in 2005.

LeT was formed to fight Indian rule in the divided Himalayan territory of Kashmir, the flashpoint for two of the three wars India and Pakistan have fought since their independence. It has denied any responsibility for the Mumbai attacks, and Pakistani authorities deny the attackers were from their country and blame "non-state actors" for the killings.

India revised the death toll from the attacks downward to 164, including 120 Indian civilians, 26 non-Indians and 18 soldiers and police officers who died in three days of battles with the attackers. Nine of the gunmen involved in the attacks were killed as well, according to Mumbai police.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that while there are "historic ties" between the Pakistani government and LeT, "Pakistan is a different place now, with a civilian government working to crack down on militants within its territory. We have to remember that Pakistan itself has been suffering at the hands of extremism. So whatever the history here … the important thing is that Pakistan act against those who used Pakistani soil to perpetrate attacks."

[CNN]