Community | December 25, 2010 | 1 comment

BREAKING NEWS:Female Suicide Bomber Kills At Least 45 In Pakistan.

keithponder
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/media/ALeqM5h3C2-j9qJwSof7A0zt_BR59iuEDw?do...

KHAR, Pakistan — At least 45 people were killed in a suicide bombing Saturday in a northwestern Pakistani tribal area bordering Afghanistan, officials said.
The blast took place at a ration distribution point of the World Food Programme in Khar, the main town of lawless Bajaur tribal district.
"At least 41 people are dead and more than 60 wounded in suicide bombing," tribal administration official Sohail Khan said.
Doctor Mohammad Hafeez, head of the local state-run hospital, confirmed the death toll and said there were several women and children among the casualties.
Bajaur was once a stronghold of Taliban militants who have carried out several bombing and suicide attacks.
Pakistan's military first launched operations in Bajaur in August 2008 and have repeatedly claimed to have eliminated the Islamist militant threat.
The country's northwest tribal belt is a stronghold of homegrown Islamist militant groups and extremists who fled Afghanistan after the US-led invasion toppled the hardline Taliban regime in late 2001.
Around 4,000 people have died in suicide and bomb attacks across Pakistan since government forces raided an extremist mosque in Islamabad in 2007. The attacks have been blamed on networks linked to the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
Bajaur is one of seven Pakistani tribal districts. The United States considers Pakistan's tribal belt the global headquarters of Al-Qaeda and the most dangerous place on Earth.
US officials are putting pressure on Pakistan to launch a major ground offensive in the tribal region of North Waziristan, considered a fortress for Taliban groups fighting US-led troops in Afghanistan.
Pakistan vehemently denies accusations that it is not doing enough to eradicate the Taliban in the northwest, saying 2,421 troops have been killed in fighting Islamist militants from 2002 until April this year.
Pakistan supported the Taliban regime in Afghanistan from 1996-2001, but became a US ally after the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington by Al-Qaeda.
  1. groups:
    Community
  2. tags:
    Taliban Bombings Suicide Bombing Pakistan State of Emergency 2007
  3.     
    |

1 comment // BREAKING NEWS:Female Suicide Bomber Kills At Least 45 In Pakistan. // Video

  • keithponder
    • 0
      keithponder  
    • Image
    • http://uk.reuters.com/resources/r/?m=02&d=20101225&t=2&i=285838378&a...
      ===========================================================
      (Reuters) - A suicide bomber attacked a gathering of displaced people waiting to get aid in northwestern Pakistan on Saturday, killing at least 40 of them, a hospital official said.

      The attack in the Bajaur region on the Afghan border came a day after a big clash between Pakistani Taliban insurgents and security forces in the neighbouring Mohmand region that left 11 soldiers and 24 militants dead.

      "I myself have counted 40 bodies but the death toll could rise as several wounded people are in critical condition," Dosti Rehman, an official at the main government hospital in Bajaur, told Reuters.

      A government official in Bajaur, Wisal Ahmed, said the people gathering to get food rations had been forced from their homes by earlier fighting between the security forces and the al Qaeda-linked militants.

      Pakistan's volatile ethnic Pashtun tribal lands on the Afghan border have been infested with militants and the army has mounted a series of operations to dislodge them.

      Hundreds of militants have been killed and many of their strongholds have been captured but the insurgents have shown the ability to strike back and have killed hundreds of people in a campaign of bomb attacks across the country.

      A senior military official in October said it would take at least six months to clear militants from Bajaur and Mohmand.

      (Writing by Zeeshan Haider

    • 1 year ago
more from Community:

top videos