Pakistan army officer 'attacked'

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Pakistani paramilitary soldiers guard the site where gunmen attacked an army officer in Islamabad.

A Pakistan army officer and his driver were seriously injured in a shooting incident in the capital, Islamabad, report agencies.
Two motorcycle-borne gunmen opened fire at the personal vehicle of the brigadier, police said.
This is the third such attack in the city since the army began its offensive against the Taliban bases in South Waziristan, on the Afghan border.
A wave of attacks on Pakistani cities killed more than 180 people during the month of October alone. The attack took place in Islamabad's sector I-8/4 early Friday morning, police said.
"The assailants escaped after carrying out the attack," Islamabad police superintendent Fakhr Alam told the BBC. "We discovered empty bullet casing and a pistol from the site of the incident." Police have cordoned off the area and investigations are continuing.
The attack comes as Pakistan's military pushes its way towards the control of South Waziristan in its operation against the Taliban militants.
The militants have repeatedly said they would carry out attacks across Pakistan as long as the operation continues.
Meanwhile: Pakistani soldiers have entered an important militant bastion in South Waziristan, security officials said Friday, as gunmen wounded an army brigadier and his driver in a drive-by shooting in the capital.
The army went on the offensive in South Waziristan, a lawless ethnic Pashtun region on the Afghan border, on Oct. 17 aiming to root out Pakistani Taliban militants behind a wave of violence in urban areas.
The offensive is closely watched by the United States and other powers embroiled in neighbouring Afghanistan, as South Waziristan's rugged landscape of barren mountains and hidden ravines has become a global centre of Islamist militancy.
Soldiers have been advancing into the militant heartland from three directions and had entered the militant-held village of Makeen, military and intelligence officials said.
"We have not seen much resistance as we entered Makeen," said a senior military official in the region who declined to be identified. "Our troops are now clearing mines and IEDs and moving forward."
An intelligence agency official said seven militants had been killed in clashes in Makeen, where Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud was killed in an attack by a US missile-firing drone aircraft in early August.
There was no independent verification of the report as journalists are not allowed into the area except on an occasional trip chaperoned by the military.