Five killed in Mingora suicide attack

The Daily Times, Pakistan, Staff Report

Friday, July 16, 2010

MINGORA:

A suicide bomber blew himself up near a busy bus stand in Mingora on Thursday, killing five people and injuring 60 others.

Police said five people were killed, including two women and a couple visiting from Punjab. Four of the injured were in critical condition and have been shifted to a Peshawar hospital. At least 10 shops and eight vehicles were damaged in the blast.

Police believes the bomber was on foot, and he detonated himself when a security convoy was passing through the area. A military spokesman said the army had been the target and that two security force personnel were wounded.

“The man was sitting in my bus and got down as soon as I pulled over and ran towards the security forces’ vehicles and then there was a big explosion,” said Siddique Jan, the driver of the bus.

10 Taliban killed in N Waziristan drone attack

Friday, July 16, 2010

MIRANSHAH:

A US drone destroyed a compound used by the Taliban in North Waziristan on Thursday, killing at least 10 militants in the first such attack in two weeks, officials said.

The unmanned aircraft fired at least two missiles into the compound in Sheerani Mada Khel village, a Taliban and al Qaeda-linked stronghold heavily targeted in a covert US drone war this year.

“At least 10 militants were killed,” a senior security official told AFP on condition of anonymity. Another security official said up to 14 militants were killed when three missiles slammed into the compound.

It was not immediately clear whether there were any high-value targets among the dead. The missiles were fired at around 6:30pm and militants quickly surrounded the site, barring access to local residents, officials said. afp

Pak forces kill 15 Taliban in Orakzai

Press TV, Friday, 16 July 2010, 08:16:10 GMT

The Pakistani military says several hundred militants have been killed in Orakzai in recent weeks.

Pakistani security forces say they have killed 15 Taliban militants and injured six others during an attack on their hideouts in Orakzai tribal region.

Pakistan's security forces backed jet fighters in targeting militant dens located in Ghandaki, Mashtikundi and Chapri Alikhel areas of Orakzai Agency, a Press TV correspondent reported, citing local sources late on Thursday.

Five militant hideouts were reportedly destroyed in the aerial attacks.

The airstrikes came a day after 24 militants, including Taliban commander Taj Gul, were killed and 34 others injured in two other air attacks on militant hideouts in the Shakar Tangi, Saifal Dar and Mamozai areas of the Orakzai tribal agency.

Government forces claim to have secured most of central and lower Orakzai and are currently battling against militants holed up in upper Orakzai.

In a separate development, Pakistani forces apprehended a foreign militant known as Badshah Gah during a search operation in Hangu district.

MVZ/JG/MVZ

Suicide attack kills five in Pakistan's Swat valley

Lehaz Ali

AFP, July 15, 2010

A suicide attack targeted a Pakistani military convoy on Thursday, killing five people in the northwestern Swat valley where the army put down a Taliban uprising last year.

It was the deadliest attack in the district since February and underscored lingering insecurity in a region that until a major military operation last year was largely outside government control and paralysed by Taliban militants.

The bombing came as the Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers in Islamabad held their first substantive talks since the 2008 Mumbai attacks -- which New Delhi blamed on Pakistani militants -- torpedoed their peace process.

Anwar Khan, 40, who runs a general store in Mingora, said he was outside asking someone not to park in front of his shop when the bomb exploded.

"I felt something very hot pierce my shoulder. A red, bloody piece of flesh hit my right cheek and after that I passed out," he told AFP by telephone after having shrapnel extracted from his shoulder in hospital.

The bomber detonated in a busy street outside a bus terminal, littering the road with burnt out vehicles and sparking a frantic rescue effort.

Police said five people were killed, including two women and a couple visiting from Pakistan's central province of Punjab, in a normally busy street outside a bus terminal while a military convoy was driving past.

"Two legs of the suicide bomber were found," Swat police chief Qazi Ghulam Farooq told AFP.

Television footage showed volunteers carrying at least one body away from the site, while others frantically pulled at the twisted doors to rescue two victims sitting in the front seats of one non-military vehicle.

Hospital officials said 47 people were wounded, including four women and seven children. Most of them had fractured bones and head injuries.

A military spokesman said the army had been the target and that two security force personnel were wounded.

"The target were army vehicles," he told AFP by telephone.

Mingora is 125 kilometres (80 miles) northwest of the capital Islamabad and the main town in Swat, a mountain valley of enormous natural beauty that was once a popular tourist destination for Pakistanis and Westerners.

In April 2009, Pakistan launched a major offensive in the neighbouring districts of Buner and Lower Dir, then advanced through Swat.

After heavy fighting that displaced an estimated two million people, the military declared the region back under army control last summer and tentative efforts have begun to kickstart development and revive the economy.

Many of the displaced have now returned to their homes to rebuild their lives, but skirmishes, threats and tensions have remained.

On May 1, a suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance to a busy market in Mingora, killing three people and wounding 12 others. Last February, a similar attack killed nine people.