Seven Pakistani soldiers killed in suicide attack

AFP ^ | 6/26/06

[TexKat]

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (AFP) - Seven Pakistani soldiers were killed when a suicide bomber blew up his car at a checkpost in a restive tribal area, a day after militants there announced a truce.

It was the second suicide blast in a month in rugged North Waziristan, where Pakistani forces recently fought bloody battles against Taliban and Al-Qaeda insurgents who fled from neighbouring Afghanistan in 2001.

Security officials said Monday paramilitary troops ordered the explosives-filled Toyota

Corolla station-wagon to stop as it neared a roadblock six kilometres (four miles) east of Miranshah, the main town in the area.

"As it did the car blew up, killing seven soldiers who were guarding the checkpost and injuring five other soldiers," one official told AFP. "The bomber's body was also blown to pieces."

The injured soldiers had been washing outside a mosque adjoining the checkpoint where they had come to offer prayers, another official said. Military helicopters airlifted them to hospital.

All roads in the area were closed off after the attack.

The bombing came hours after Pakistani authorities cautiously welcomed a one-month truce offered by pro-Taliban militants in the troubled area bordering Afghanistan.

The ceasefire announced late on Sunday was supposed to allow the meeting of a council of tribal elders, known as a jirga, at which they will negotiate between the insurgents, local people and the army to stop the bloodshed.

The offer is "conditional, if the security forces attack us then we reserve the right to defend ourselves," Abdullah Farhad, a purported spokesman for the militants said in telephone calls to local newspaper offices.

The rebels also gave a string of demands, including replacing army troops with tribal police; keeping soldiers in their barracks for the period of the ceasefire; and the release of all tribesmen detained in military operations.

"We welcome the announcement of a unilateral ceasefire," said a spokesman for Ali Jan Orakzai, governor of North West Frontier Province where the near-lawless region is ruled from.

"The ceasefire is holding," he said earlier Monday.

On June 2 four Pakistani soldiers were killed and eight wounded in a suicide car-bombing in North Waziristan.

Key US ally Pakistan has deployed some 80,000 troops to hunt down Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters who sneaked into the tribal belt after the fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in late 2001.

North Waziristan is one of seven agencies that make up the tribal zone. The militants lost some 200 men when the region was rocked by major clashes in March, just after US President George W. Bush visited Pakistan.

[TexKat]

Pakistani paramilitary troops ride in a vehicle as they patrol a market in Miranshah -- the main town of North Waziristan -- in May 2006. Seven Pakistani soldiers were killed when a suicide bomber blew up his car at a checkpost in the restive tribal area, a day after militants there announced a truce.

[Brilliant]

So much for the 30 day cease fire.

[Londo Molari]

muslims killing muslims. Surprise, surprise. I would be more shocked to read that muslims didn't kill anyone yesterday. That would be an unbelievable event.

[AdvisorB]

"As it did the car blew up, killing seven soldiers who were guarding the checkpost and injuring five other soldiers," one official told AFP. "The bomber's body was also blown to pieces."


The injured soldiers had been washing outside a mosque adjoining the checkpoint where they had come to offer prayers, another official said. Military helicopters airlifted them to a hospital."

Well at least Allan has a sense of humor.