Sixteen Pakistani soldiers killed in militant ambush
Thursday, 19 July 2007
MIRANSHAH, Pakistan, July 18 (AFP): Pro-Taliban militants ambushed a Pakistani military convoy near the Afghan border Wednesday, sparking a gunbattle that left at least 16 soldiers and some rebels dead, the army said.
The fighting in the North Waziristan tribal region moved the government one step closer to an all-out war with Islamic extremists in the area, who abandoned a 10-month-old peace treaty with the government on Sunday.
Pakistan has been rocked by a wave of violence since government troops stormed the hardline Red Mosque in the capital Islamabad last week, killing scores of militants.
In Wednesday's attack, insurgents fired rockets at the convoy and then opened fire with automatic weapons near the village of Lwara Mundi, chief military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad said.
"Sixteen soldiers were martyred and 14 others were injured. Some miscreants were also killed in the exchange of fire," Arshad told AFP, adding that security had been stepped up in the region.
"Initial reports say that the fighting was heavy," a senior security official said.
The mountainous area where the ambush took place is near where Pakistani forces earlier this year erected the first 35-kilometre (20 mile) stretch of a controversial anti-Taliban fence along the border with Afghanistan.
The attack happened hours after a roadside bomb blast in North Waziristan injured six civilians and a soldier.
Separately a landmine exploded overnight outside the Miranshah home of politician Mohammad Ajmal Khan, who served as federal sports minister in the 1990s, destroying his front gate but causing no casualties, officials said.
A day earlier, a suicide blast in North Waziristan killed three soldiers and a civilian, while another suicide attack in the capital Islamabad killed at least 15 people.
On Saturday a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-packed car into a paramilitary convoy in North Waziristan, leaving 24 dead and scores wounded.
Early Sunday, two suicide car bombers struck another convoy in the Swat Valley of North West Frontier Province-home to militants with links to the Red Mosque-killing 12 security personnel and five civilians.
Later that day another attacker brought carnage to a police recruitment centre in the same province, killing at least 26 police officials and recruits when he set off a load of explosives strapped to his body.
The fighting in the North Waziristan tribal region moved the government one step closer to an all-out war with Islamic extremists in the area, who abandoned a 10-month-old peace treaty with the government on Sunday.
Pakistan has been rocked by a wave of violence since government troops stormed the hardline Red Mosque in the capital Islamabad last week, killing scores of militants.
In Wednesday's attack, insurgents fired rockets at the convoy and then opened fire with automatic weapons near the village of Lwara Mundi, chief military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad said.
"Sixteen soldiers were martyred and 14 others were injured. Some miscreants were also killed in the exchange of fire," Arshad told AFP, adding that security had been stepped up in the region.
"Initial reports say that the fighting was heavy," a senior security official said.
The mountainous area where the ambush took place is near where Pakistani forces earlier this year erected the first 35-kilometre (20 mile) stretch of a controversial anti-Taliban fence along the border with Afghanistan.
The attack happened hours after a roadside bomb blast in North Waziristan injured six civilians and a soldier.
Separately a landmine exploded overnight outside the Miranshah home of politician Mohammad Ajmal Khan, who served as federal sports minister in the 1990s, destroying his front gate but causing no casualties, officials said.
A day earlier, a suicide blast in North Waziristan killed three soldiers and a civilian, while another suicide attack in the capital Islamabad killed at least 15 people.
On Saturday a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-packed car into a paramilitary convoy in North Waziristan, leaving 24 dead and scores wounded.
Early Sunday, two suicide car bombers struck another convoy in the Swat Valley of North West Frontier Province-home to militants with links to the Red Mosque-killing 12 security personnel and five civilians.
Later that day another attacker brought carnage to a police recruitment centre in the same province, killing at least 26 police officials and recruits when he set off a load of explosives strapped to his body.