by Bill Roggio - March 2., 2012. - LWJ
At least 55 Pakistanis were killed in the contested tribal agency
of Khyber today in a suicide bombing outside a mosque and an ambush on a
military outpost. The outburst of violence takes place just two weeks
after Khyber's political agent said military operations have "broken the
back" of terrorists operating in the tribal agency.
In the first attack, the Lashkar-e-Islam, a radical, Taliban-like
group that operates in Khyber, killed 10 Pakistani soldiers after
ambushing a military checkpoint in Khyber's Tirah Valley. Pakistani
troops manning the outpost returned fire and claimed to have killed 23
Lashkar-e-Islam fighters.
In the second attack, a Taliban suicide bomber detonated his vest
outside a mosque in the Tirah Valley known to be frequented by members
of the Lashkar-e-Islam. Twenty-two people were reported killed. The
Lashkar-e-Islam claimed that only six of their fighters were killed in
the attack.
The Taliban claimed credit for the suicide attack, and said it was
carried out to avenge the deaths of several Taliban fighters at the
hands of the Lashkar-e-Islam last month,
according to the BBC.
Today's attacks cap a week of violence in Khyber, which included
the killing of two women and a child in an IED attack on Feb. 29, and a clash on Feb. 24 that resulted in
the deaths of seven Lashkar-e-Islam fighters and three Pakistani soldiers.
The week of violence occurs after the tribal agency's political agent
said a military operation designed to sever the Tirah Valley from other
areas of Khyber
was so successful that it has "broken the back of Lashkar-i-Islam that has remained unchallenged in the area for seven years."
The Lashkar-e-Islam is run by Mangal Bagh [for more information, see
LWJ report,
A profile of Mangal Bagh].
The group has established its own Taliban-like government in large
areas of the tribal agency, including in Bara, Jamrud, and the Tirah
Valley. It also
provides recruits to battle US and Afghan forces across the border,
and has attacked NATO's vital supply line moving through Khyber before
it was shut down by the Pakistani government last November. The
Pakistani military has targeted the Lashkar-e-Islam during multiple
operations over the past five years, each time declaring the group
defeated. But the military has failed to dislodge the group from power.
The Lashkar-e-Islam occasionally allies with the Movement of the
Taliban in Pakistan, and occasionally feuds with the terror group. Tariq
Afridi, a powerful Taliban commander based in Darra Adam Khel, has
taken control of Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan's operations in
Khyber.
Lashkar-e-Islam's main enemy, particularly in the Tirah Valley, was
the Ansar-ul-Islam, a rival radical Deobandi group based in the area
that is supposedly banned by the Pakistani government. In the past, the
two groups have fought each other for control over the Tirah Valley, and
have even attacked each other using suicide bombers. The
Lashkar-e-Islam has gained the upper hand over the Ansur-ul-Islam over
the past several years.
Both the Taliban and the Lashkar-e-Islam are known to operate bases
and training camps in the Tirah Valley as well as in Bara and Jamrud.
These safe havens in Khyber enable these terror groups to launch attacks
inside Pakistan as well across the border in Nangarhar province in
Afghanistan. In November 2008, the US military
attacked Taliban forces
in the Tirah Valley after they retreated across the Pakistani border
from Nangarhar. US strike aircraft and artillery killed seven Taliban
fighters during the hot pursuit.
The US has also launched several drone strikes in Khyber while hunting senior terrorist leaders. In 2009, US Predators
killed Ibn Amin, a Taliban and al Qaeda commander, in one of four strikes between Dec.16-17 in the Tirah Valley. Amin was
the commander of the Tora Bora Brigade, one of six formations in al Qaeda's Lashkar al Zil, or Shadow Army. He operated in the Swat Valley.
Washington Time
Kabul Time
London Time
