Militants strike in Pakistan capital

Militants strike in Pakistan capital Azhar Masood | Arab News

ISLAMABAD: True to his threat Taleban leader Baitullah Mehsud struck in the capital's top security F/7 district yesterday with one of his men sneaking into a fortified post of Frontier Constabulary (FC)and detonating his explosives among soldiers. The blast killed at least eight soldiers. Interior Ministry Secretary Sayed Kamal Shah said a group of militants simultaneously attacked the post with automatic weapons, but were repulsed by FC soldiers. The attack in the capital was the second in two weeks and came on a day when US drone-fired missiles killed at least 13 people in northwest Pakistan and a suicide bomber attacked a security check post in the region, killing 17 civilians. The US is suspected of carrying out more than three dozen drone strikes over the past year in Pakistan near the Afghan border, where militants often launch attacks against US and NATO troops in Afghanistan. The drone attacks have caused tension with the Pakistani government, which complains about the US carrying out strikes in its territory. The home targeted by the drone just after dawn yesterday was in North Waziristan, a Pakistani tribal region that is believed to be an important base for Al-Qaeda and Taleban militants, intelligence officials said. The dead and injured included local and foreign militants, but women and children were also killed in the attack, said the officials. A local tribal elder, Dilawar Khan, confirmed that 13 people were killed, saying the owner's family was among the dead. He said he did not know the identities of the other people killed or whether there were militants staying at the home, in Data Khel village very close to the Afghan border. Pakistan says the drone strikes violate the country's sovereignty, kill innocent civilians and generate sympathy for the militants. But the United States believes the attacks are an effective tool to combat militants in the region. Some 700 people in the Orakzai tribal region near the Afghan border protested US missile strikes yesterday, blocking a main road for two hours and chanting anti-American slogans. Separately, a suicide bomber killed 17 civilians when he set off explosives in his vehicle near a security checkpoint on the outskirts of Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan. The attacker was apparently pursuing a paramilitary convoy. "Troops traveling in the convoy and those deployed at the post largely escaped the blast, but 17 passersby, including schoolchildren, were killed," an official said. "The bomber failed to directly hit his target because the troops opened fire on the explosive-laden vehicle to immobilize it," the official explained. — With input from agencies