Militants target Pakistan's brigadiers

Tue Oct 27, 2009

Gunmen target an army official's car in the Pakistani capital as tensions rage between pro-Taliban militants and government troops across the violence-ridden country.

Two gunmen on a motorcycle sprayed bullets on the car of Brigadier Waqar Ahmed Tuesday morning in a busy neighborhood in Islamabad, which left no injuries.

The attack comes a few days after Thursday's assassination of a brigadier on leave from a UN peacekeeping mission in Sudan, along with his driver in Islamabad.

The military has been plagued by repeated insurgent attacks, including the one earlier this month on the army headquarters in Rawalpindi claimed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban in Pakistan (TTP) militants.

Pakistani officials said six militants were killed earlier on Tuesday in clashes triggered by a pre-dawn attack, which killed two soldiers at a checkpoint in Baizai area of Mohmand agency.

This happened after, armed insurgents killed four Pakistani forces on Monday at a security post in Mattak in the northwestern Bajaur agency, according to government sources. Nine militants died in the army's backfire and clashes later in the day.

Pakistani fighter jets on Monday pounded suspected militants' hideouts in Mamnozai and Shakar Tangi areas in Orkzai agency, and Bajaur's Lee Sam and Khar.

Army officials said dozens of militants were killed in the air strikes and at least 40 others were arrested by security forces in Mohmand and Orakzai agencies.

Security forces also managed to arrest notorious militant Ali Shah Khan, a close aide to Tehrik-e-Taliban's Swat chief Maulana Fazlullah, local officials in North Frontier Province reported.

Pakistan says it has been involved in a massive anti-militant campaign in the lawless northwestern tribal belt along the Afghan border, pressing an 11-day ground and air offensive against the TTP hiding in South Waziristan, blamed for 80 percent of terrorist attacks in the country.

The insurgents have killed over 200 people across Pakistan in October, threatening fresh strikes, as long as the army proceeds with its offensive near the Afghan border.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/109731.html.