Roadside Bomb Attacks Kill Five in Tribal Pakistan

W460

Roadside bombs killed a total of five people and wounded 10 Sunday in two separate blasts in Pakistan's lawless tribal zone near the Afghan border, officials said.

One of the improvised explosive devices was planted along the route of an army convoy in the Mir Ali area 35 kilometers (21 miles) east of Miranshah, the main town in the North Waziristan district, they said.

"The explosion killed at least two soldiers and injured seven others," a security official in Miranshah said.

Another local security official confirmed the attack and said two of some 10 to 15 vehicles in the convoy were severely damaged.

In the Shin Qamar area of the Khyber tribal region, at least three laborers were killed and three wounded Sunday in an explosion caused by a roadside bomb, said senior local official Nasir Khan.

He said the bomb went off as the laborers, who were carrying construction materials on mules, passed by. Local intelligence officials also confirmed the incident.

Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal belt is made up of seven districts. In North Waziristan, Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants have carved out strongholds used to plot attacks across the border in Afghanistan.

The al-Qaida-linked Haqqani network in North Waziristan, blamed for some of the deadliest attacks in Afghanistan, is one of the thorniest issues in relations between Islamabad and Washington.

Washington has long demanded that Pakistan take action against the Haqqanis, which the then-top U.S. military officer, Admiral Mike Mullen, last year described as a "veritable arm" of the Pakistani intelligence service.

Pakistan says it will act according to its own needs and priorities and not on the wishes of a foreign government.

Comments 1
Missing phillipo 18 November 2012, 22:12

In another article today we read the comments of President of Pakistan supporting Hamas in Gaza, when he can't even control what is going on in his own country.
His forces attack Taliban who want to destroy his country. What is the difference between that and Israel attacking the Hamas ? None.