23 militants killed in military operation in NW Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, June 1 (Xinhua) -- At least 23 militants were killed in an overnight operation launched by Pakistan army in the country 's northwest tribal area of Kurram Agency, reported local media ARY on Saturday.

The clashes between militants and security forces also killed two soldiers and wounded five others, said local media.

According to the local media reports, the operation started last night in the Para Chamkani area of Kurram Agency, a restive tribal region which borders to east Afghanistan.

During the operation, security forces also reportedly destroyed four militant hideouts.

On Friday, a statement issued the army mouthpiece ISPR said that 19 militants were killed in separate military operations conducted in Kurram Agency and its neighboring Khyber Agency since Thursday night.

In the operations, the two soldiers were also martyred, said the statement.

from XINHUA
2013-06-01 13:03:32
Editor: Deng Shasha

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US launches first drone strike in Pakistan in 6 weeks

By Bill Roggio - May 29, 2013 - LWJ

The US killed seven people in the first drone strike in Pakistan in six weeks. The attack took place in an area of Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan, and is rumored to have killed the deputy emir for the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan.

The CIA-operated, remotely piloted Predators or the more deadly Reapers fired a pair of missiles at a compound in the village of Chashma, which is just outside of Miramshah, the main town in the tribal agency, according to Reuters.

Seven people were killed in the strike and several more were wounded. It is unclear, however, if those killed were civilians or jihadists allied with the Taliban, al Qaeda, or other terrorist groups known to shelter in the area.

Unnamed Pakistani intelligence officials claimed that Waliur Rehman, the leader of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan in South Waziristan and deputy to emir Hakeemullah Mehsud, was killed in the strike. Additionally, an aide known as Fakhar-ul-Islam is said to have been killed in the strike along with "two unknown Uzbek nationals," according to CNN.

The Pakistani government has not officially stated that Rehman was killed. The Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan has neither confirmed nor denied reports of his death.

US intelligence officials contacted by The Long War Journal would not confirm or deny that Rehman was killed, but did say they were aware of reports of his death. One official said that Rehman is on the CIA's kill list and has been targeted in the past.

The strike took place in an area of North Waziristan that is administered by the Haqqani Network, the al Qaeda-linked Taliban subgroup that operates in eastern Afghanistan and is based in North Waziristan.

Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2013/05/us_launches_first_dr.php#ixzz2Ugx4NNRB

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Attack on Police Convoy in Pakistan Kills 6

A militant attack on a police convoy near the city of Peshawar in northwestern Pakistan has killed at least six policemen.
Several others were wounded, including the district police officer, in the attack Friday on the Indus Highway. Local media say the militants armed with rockets ambushed the convoy, which was on its way from Peshawar to Kohat.

A wounded driver was able to reach Kohat, where the wounded were rushed to a hospital. A police contingent was sent to the area after the attack.

Earlier Friday, unidentified gunmen opened fire on a convoy of NATO containers in northwestern Pakistan, killing a driver and wounding another person.

Local tribal police official Khan Dad said the gunmen opened fire from the nearby mountains as the convoy entered Pakistan from Afghanistan in the troubled Khyber region.

The convoy was heading for the port city of Karachi.

Militant attacks are common in northwestern Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal belt near the border with Afghanistan.

Pakistan is a key transit route for the NATO mission in Afghanistan, from where supplies are driven to the border from the Arabian Sea port of Karachi.

In Peshawar, a suicide bomber attacked the vehicle of a religious leader Friday, killing three people.

Authorities say the leader, Haji Hayatullah, was not in the vehicle when it was attacked.  His driver, a bodyguard and a passerby were killed in the blast.

No one has claimed responsibility.

from VOA News
May 24, 2013

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5/17/13: 13 Killed in Pakistan Mosque Blasts

Men inspect the mosque damaged by a bomb blast in Baz Darra area of Malakand. PHOTO: RAB NAWAZ/EXPRESS

Black Friday: Blasts tear through Malakand mosques

PESHAWAR / BATKHELA: Two bombs ripped through two separate mosques in the Baz Darra area of Malakand Protected Area on Friday, killing 13 worshippers and wounding over three dozen people.

“Around 1:20pm when people gathered for Friday prayers in the main mosque, Bar Jummat, in Baz Darra village a bomb went off, killing nine worshippers on the spot and injuring over 35,” Deputy Commissioner Amjid Ali Khan told journalists. Another four worshippers, with critical wounds, succumbed to their injuries in hospital.

Residents rushed to pull out victims from the mosque which collapsed due to the impact of the blast, Khan said. Minutes later, a second bomb tore through a nearby mosque, he added. A 70-year-old man, identified as Khalilur Rahman, was trapped under the rubble of the second mosque and died.

Explaining why the second blast was less deadly, Khan said that most of the worshippers had rushed to help the victims of the first blast. “It’s an act of terrorism,” Khan said, adding that they didn’t have intelligence of a possible attack in the region.

Levies forces official Gul Roz Khan said it was a time device which was planted under a praying mat inside the main hall of the mosque. He added that the mosque was reduced to a heap of rubble. Details of the second blast were murky till the filing of this report.

According to Gul Roz, four critically injured people died while being shifted to Dargai Civil Hospital while a state of emergency was declared in Palai Civil Hospital and nearby medical units.

“We have imposed a curfew in the area and mounted a manhunt for the perpetrators,” Gul Roz added.

Dr Naseer of the Palai Civil Hospital said that they have received around 30 injured – five of them, with life-threatening wounds have been referred to hospitals in Peshawar.

Nine injured were shifted to Peshawar’s Lady Reading Hospital – two of them are said to be in a critical condition.

“I was offering prayers when a loud explosion went off,” Zareen Muhammad, a farmer who was injured in the blast, told The Express Tribune from his hospital bed. “I lost consciousness and when I regained senses I found myself on the hospital bed.”

Another survivor, Inamullah Khan, said that the blast took place during Friday’s sermon of the prayer leader. “Thick smoke and dust filled the main prayers hall. When the smoke cleared I found myself lying amidst many other inured,” he added.

Earlier in the morning, the house of a retired security official was targeted with a bomb by suspected militants in Baz Darra village. The boundary wall and main gate of the house were destroyed in the explosion.

Caretaker Prime Minister Mir Hazar Khan condemned the bombings in strong terms and ordered the authorities to be ‘vigilant’ to avert such incidents in future, said a statement issued by his office.

The provincial information minister, Mussarat Qadeem, also denounced the blasts and expressed grief over the loss of precious lives. In a statement, she said that restoration of peace topped the priority list of the interim administration. She sought people’s cooperation in combating the menace of militancy in the region.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 18th, 2013.
By Tribune Correspondent / Rab Nawaz / Photo: Rab Nawaz
Published: May 18, 2013

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Karachi: Toll rises to 11 in Quaidabad blast

People gather at the blast site in southern Pakistani port city of Karachi, Pakistan, on May 11, 2013. At least ten people were killed and 30 others injured when a blast went off near a polling station in Karachi on Saturday morning, reported local Urdu TV channel Dawn. (Xinhua/Arshad)

KARACHI: A bomb blast targeting an election candidate killed eleven people and wounded dozens near Dawood intersection in Quaidabad area of Karachi as historic elections got underway on Saturday, police told.

"We have received 11 dead bodies and several injured people," said doctor Semi Jamali, head of the emergency department at Jinnah Hospital in Karachi.

The target was an election candidate of ANP (Awami National Party). He was travelling in his car when the bomb exploded," senior police official told.

The target of the attack, Amanullah Mehsud, escaped unhurt, police official said.

Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan claimed responsibility.

"We proudly claim responsibility for this attack, we carried it out and will carry out more of the same," Ehsan said of the first deadly attack on polling day.

The election marks the first democratic transition of power in the nuclear-armed state but the run-up to the polls has been marred by Taliban attacks that have killed more than 120 people.

More than 600,000 security personnel are being deployed nationwide and around half the estimated 70,000 polling stations have been declared at risk of attack, many of them in parts of Balochistan province and the northwest.

A senior PPP official said party chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari -- the son of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto -- would not vote because of threats to his life.

On Friday, a candidate for the provincial assembly in Sindh was shot dead along with two supporters in Karachi.

from GEO.TV
May 11, 2013 - Updated 127 PKT

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3 security personnel, 9 militants killed in clashes in NW Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, May 10 (Xinhua) -- At least three security personnel and nine militants were killed on Friday during armed clashes in Pakistan's northwestern tribal region of Kurram Agency, local media reported.

The clashes started after a group of militants armed with heavy weapons stormed a check post of security forces in Para Chamkani area of Kurram Agency, one of the country's restive tribal regions bordering Afghanistan, local media reported quoting official sources.

The attack was so sudden that the security personnel could not retaliate quickly and militants killed three security personnel present at the check post.

Soon after the attack the quick response force rushed to site and cordoned off the whole area along with a gunship helicopter hovering over the area.

The surrounded militants opened fire at the forces besides throwing hand grenades and launching rockets at the forces to make the way to flee from the area. In the cross fire, nine militants were killed and eight others injured while some of them succeeded in running away.

In these clashes at least four security personnel were also injured.

Security forces shifted the bodies and injured to the army hospital in the area.

Following the clashes, security forces launched a grand search operation in the tribal region to arrest the escaped militants.

Earlier on Monday, a suicide bomber targeted a political gathering in the same region killing 26 besides leaving over 40 others injured.

from XINHUA
Editor: Wang Yuanyuan
2013-05-10 15:52:39

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Pakistan: 3 killed, 11 injured in Miranshah market blast

MIRANSHAH: A motorbike bomb close to party political offices killed three people and wounded 11 in Miranshah on the eve of the country's general election.

The bomb went off in the main bazaar of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan district, a security official said.

Witnesses and hospital officials said 11 people had been taken to Miranshah Civil Hospital, some of them in a serious condition.

Another official in the northwestern city of Peshawar confirmed the blast and the casualties.

No one has claimed responsibility for the blast.

Pakistan goes to the polls on Saturday to elect a new government, the first time in the country's turbulent history that one civilian administration has handed power to another through the ballot box.

But the campaign has been marred by violence, with more than 100 people killed in bombings and shootings in the month leading up to polling day.

from GEO.TV
May 10, 2013 - Updated 1055 PKT

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Pakistan Taliban threatens suicide bombings during Saturday’s election

Map of Pakistan (Photo credit: Omer Wazir)

The threat of violence hangs over this Saturday’s landmark general election in Pakistan, which marks the first time that a civilian government will complete a full term and hand over to another.
Pakistan’s Taliban is reportedly vowing to disrupt the poll with suicide bombings – in words attributed to its leader Hakimullah Mehsud, because it does not accept “the system of infidels called democracy”.

This week has seen several attacks on political parties in the northwest tribal region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. A bomb on Wednesday in the southern city of Karachi injured 20, including women and children. No group claimed responsibility for the attack which had no obvious target.

A leading newspaper, the Daily Times, says the election is being called the bloodiest in Pakistan’s history.

The favourite to become prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, has held the post twice in the 1990s, before he was deposed, jailed and exiled. He has played on his experience and promised to turn the country into an Asian tiger.

Worryingly for the West, he has hinted strongly that he will end support for the US war on Islamist militancy.

Imran Khan is expected to make a full recovery despite falling off a campaign rostrum and fracturing his spine.

The former cricket star advocates shooting down American drones and pulling the Pakistani army out of border areas with Afghanistan where the insurgency is strongest.

Neither his nor Sharif’s party has been targeted by the Taliban.

from EURONEWS
09/05 10:56 CET

Read the full stroy at EURONEWS

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Suicide blast rocks Khost City

KHOST CITY (PAN): A suicide bombing rocked the capital of southeastern Khost province, bordering the Pakistan’s northwestern tribal region of Kurram, on Thursday.

The bomber blew himself up in the Faiz Mohammad Khan Square of Khost City at about 10am, a security official told Pajhwok Afghan News. Rescuers rushed were at the site of the blast.

Col. Mohammad Yaqub, the deputy police chief, told Pajhwok Afghan News only the bomber was killed in the incident.Having been tipped off about the assailant's entry into the city, police had taken tight security measures.

He said the bomber's apparent target as a convoy of security forces and local official that was to depart Khost City for Gurbaz district. Yaqub said the bomber detonated hisexplosives after being surrounded by police.

Following the explosion, security personnel cordoned off the scene. The blast was so powerful that nearby areas were rocked, leaving residents in panic, one witness said.

from Pajhwok
By Pajhwok Report May 9, 2013 - 10:42

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2 killed, 17 injured as bomb hits market in NW Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, May 8 (Xinhua) -- At least two people were killed and 17 others injured when a bomb went off at a market place in Pakistan's northwest city of Hangu on Wednesday afternoon, local media reported.
Capital TV said that the bomb was detonated by a remote controlled device when residents were shopping in Jani Chowk market area of Hangu, a city that lies some 200 kilometers southwest of the country's capital Islamabad.

Police said that the bomb carrying an estimated 10 kg of explosive materials was affixed at a vegetable cart parked inside the market.

The injured people were rushed to a nearby hospital where doctors are providing medical treatment to them.

The blast left two shops and several vehicles destroyed.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack yet.

In separate incident of Wednesday evening, two people were killed when a bomb hit house of a local political party worker in the country's northwest Bajaur tribal area.

from XINHUA
2013-05-08 21:52:54

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New militant magazine appeals for help against drones

A new magazine set up by militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan has appealed to Muslims around the world to come up with a new technology to hack or manipulate drones.

The magazine has mentioned this as their most important priorities.

According to the Express Tribune, the first issue of the English-language online magazine, called 'Azan', was published on May 5, the SITE intelligence monitoring group said.

It compared Azan to the 'Inspire' magazine, which has been set up by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

The magazine said that drone strikes were affecting the war in the Waziristan tribal areas of Pakistan - where al Qaeda is based along with the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Afghan Taliban fighters.

Western officials have said drone strikes have been highly effective in disrupting the activities of al Qaeda and its allies in the tribal region bordering Afghanistan.

According to the report, Azan magazine accused the Pakistan Army of continuing to work with the United States.

'Azan' covers many areas where al Qaeda is active, from Syria to Mali, and celebrates Afghanistan as the base for the start of global jihad, its focus, however, is on Pakistan.

One section in the magazine is devoted to criticising Malala Yousufzai, the schoolgirl who survived being shot by the Pakistani Taliban last year after she spoke out for her right to an education.

Another segment attacks the Pakistan Army for turning its back on traditional enemy India to fight in the tribal areas.

from afghanistannews.netTuesday 7th May, 2013
---

Read the full article from REUTERS here

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15 Killed in Clashes Between Bangladesh Police, Islamists

Police try to detain an activist of Hifazat-e-Islam during a clash in front of the national mosque in Dhaka, May 5, 2013.

NEW DELHI — Fiery clashes between Bangladeshi security forces and Islamic hardliners demanding the implementation of anti-blasphemy laws have killed at least 15 people in and around the capital Dhaka since Sunday.
Police worked Monday to clear Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital, of any remaining protesters, a day after tens of thousands of members of the radical Islamic group Hefajat-e-Islam took to the streets.

Islamists blocked roadways and fought with police late Sunday, while shouting “God is great” and calling for the Awami League-led government to enact stronger Islamic policies.

The newly formed Hifazat-e-Islam has put forth a list of 13 demands including mandatory Islamic education for all, the segregation of men and women, and death to so-called "atheists".

Former Bangladeshi law minister and current Supreme Court senior advocate Kamal Hossein said such demands will get little support in a country that - despite being 90 percent Muslim - has remained secular since independence.

“I can honestly say that there is complete consensus in the country on non-communal democracy and not getting communalism revived again, not seeing religion mixed up with politics," Hossein said. "Pakistan is having enough difficulties with it for people to just look across [and see how they are faring]. And I have spoken to people from Pakistan and they say ‘you are so fortunate to have been able to have non-communal politics.”

Continue & Read more on VOA News

from VOA News
by Aru Pande

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6 killed, 25 injured in bomb blast in NW Pakistan

Pakistani soldiers patrol on road ahead of parliamentary elections in southern Pakistan's Hyderabad, May 6, 2013.(XINHUA/Jan Ali)

ISLAMABAD, May 6 (Xinhua) -- At least six people were killed and 25 others injured on Monday afternoon in a bomb blast that hit a public gathering in Pakistan's northwestern tribal region of Kurram Agency, hospital sources said.

Local media gave higher figures of the casualties in the blast but there was no official confirmation reported by the media.

According to the reports, the bomb blast took place in the public gathering of a religious-political party of Jamiat Ulema-e- Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) in the Makhrani area of Kurram Agency, one of Pakistan's northwestern tribal regions.

The Medial Superintendent of Agency Hospital of the area said that at least six bodies and 25 injured were shifted to the hospital.

According to a hospital official, the number of causalities could rise as many people were in critical condition.

Rescuers and security forces rushed to the site and shifted the bodies and the injured to the hospital.

At the time of the blast, hundreds of people were present to listen to their leaders contesting for the country's May 11 elections.

The bomb exploded with a big bang at the conclusion of the public gathering near the stage where two JUI-F leaders were sitting but they remained unhurt in the attack.

The nature of the blast was not confirmed yet but a higher officer said that the blast was conducted with an improvised explosive device.

No group or militant organization has claimed responsibility for the attack yet.

from XINHUA
2013-05-06 19:46:30
Editor: Yang Yi

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3 insurgents killed in Kunar shelling

Districts of Kunar. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

ASADABAD (PAN): Three Taliban fighters were killed by Afghan troops in the eastern province of Kunar, bordering Pakistan’s tribal region of Bajaur, officials said on Friday.
The insurgents were killed on Thursday as a result of artillery shelling in the Yakha China area of Khas Kunar district, a spokesman of 2nd brigade of ANA, Maj. Haroon Yousafzai, told Pajhwok Afghan News.

He said the militants, who had sneaked into the area from Pakistan to conduct disruptive activities, were targeted by the Afghan military. The border area is largely uninhabited.

The Taliban have so far said nothing about the shelling, but their spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed the fighters had killed four Afghan soldiers and destroyed two of their vehicles as a result of attacks on their checkpoints in Marawara and Manogai districts.

from Pajhwok
By Khan Wali Salarzai May 3, 2013 - 14:13

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Suicide Bomber Kills 8 in NW Pakistan

A police officer collects evidence from the site of a bomb blast on University Road in Peshawar, Apr. 29, 2013.

Pakistani police say a suicide bomber killed at least eight people and wounded 45 others in the northwestern city of Peshawar, as violence in Pakistan spikes ahead of the country's elections May 11.

Authorities say Monday's attack was carried out by a man on a motorbike and targeted the convoy of a senior official, who had left the scene just prior to the explosion.  The blast damaged a passing police vehicle and passenger bus.

Among the dead is the son of prominent Afghan cleric Qazi Amin Waqad.  The cleric is a member of Afghanistan's High Peace Council, which is working to bring the Afghan Taliban to peace talks with the government in Kabul.

Reports say the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for Monday's attack, making it the latest in a wave of political violence that has killed dozens of people since April 11.  Most of the attacks have targeted candidates from secular parties opposed to the Taliban.

On Sunday, three Taliban bomb attacks in northwest Pakistan killed at least nine people at political campaign offices.

Two more Taliban bomb blasts Saturday targeted secular parties in Pakistan's largest city of Karachi.  At least three people died in those attacks.

The May 11 elections will mark the first time a Pakistani civilian government has served a full term and passed government leadership on to a new civilian administration.

from VOA News
April 29, 2013

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Female suicide bomber kill four at hospital in Bajaur

According to Pakistani security officials, a woman suicide bomber today detonated a bomb outside a hospital in a lawless tribal area of northwest Pakistan, killing at least four people and injuring five others.

The attack took place in Khar, the main town of Bajaur tribal district bordering Afghanistan where the military has carried out several offensives against Al-Qaeda-linked Taliban militants.

Mohammad Riaz, chief doctor at the government hospital said, “At least four people were killed and four others were wounded in the blast outside the main gate of the hospital.”

In the meantime local administration official Abdul Haseebhe said, “It was a female suicide bomber, about 18-20 years old. We have found her legs and head.”

The dead included a security personnel, a hospital worker and two civilians, he added.

Bajaur, one of seven districts that make up Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), had been a stronghold of the Taliban until 2008. However, the security forces cleared the region of Taliban militants as the result of major offensives.

from KHAAMA
By Meena Haseeb - 20 Apr 2013, 4:02 pm

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US drones kill 5 'militants' in South Waziristan

By Bill Roggio - April 17, 2013 - LWJ

The US killed five "militants" in a drone strike today in an area of Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of South Waziristan. The strike is the second reported by the US in Pakistan in the past four days.
The CIA-operated, remotely piloted Predators or the more deadly Reapers fired a pair of missiles at what was described by AFP as "a base of the TTP," or the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan. Five "militants" were killed in the strike and two more were wounded, Pakistani intelligence officials said. The Taliban "base," which was located in the village of Sararogha, was leveled in the airstrike.
No senior al Qaeda or Taliban commanders or operatives are reported to have been killed in the attack.
The village of Sararogha has been a stronghold of the al Qaeda-linked Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan. In the past, Waliur Rehman, the head of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, is said to have directed operations from the village. Although the Pakistani military claimed it liberated Sararogha during an offensive that began in the fall of 2009, the fact that the US launched a drone strike in the village today indicates it is far from being under the control of the security forces.

Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2013/04/us_drones_kill_5_mil.php#ixzz2Ql5B6lyR

---

from KHAAMA: 
US airstrike destroy Taliban training camp in South Waziristan  
By Mirwais Adeel - 17 Apr 2013, 3:44 pm

According to Pakistani government officials, at least five people were killed after a US drone fired two missiles into a Taliban training camp in Pakistan on Wednesday.

The attack was carried out in the Baber Ghar area of the south Wazirsitan tribal district on the Afghan border, a stronghold of Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud where the faction runs several camps.

The attack was also confirmed by another official, who also spoke to AFP, saying the drone targeted a base of Pakistan’s umbrella Taliban faction, Tehreek-e-Taliban.

In the meantime a statement issued by the Foreign Office on Monday condemned the last attack and said such unilateral strikes violated international law.

The statement added, “Such attacks also set dangerous precedents in inter-state relations. The government of Pakistan calls upon the US government to stop such attacks based on mutual respect and established international norms.”

The covert strikes are publicly criticized by the Pakistani government as a violation of sovereignty but American officials believe they are a vital weapon in the war against Islamist militants.

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15 dead in Peshawar rally blast on Tuesday

KABUL (PAN): A bomb blast killed at least 15 people and injured dozens others, including women and children, at a political rally of the Awami National Party (ANP in Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar on Tuesday.

The blast in Yakatoot, a congested neighbourhood, came moments after senior ANP leader Ghulam Ahmed Bilour and others arrived at the scene --- the fourth deadly attack on politicians in three days ahead of May 11 general elections.

Bilour, a former federal minister for railways, escaped with only minor bruises. He was shown on television footage with blood splatters on his shirt after the attack. The dead included a child and five police officials.

Police said it was a suicide attack in which up to six kilograms of explosives along with splinters and ball bearings were used. Live television footage showed vehicles burning and people rescuing the wounded in a cloud of smoke.

Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has claimed responsibility for the blast. Bashir Bilour, Ghulam Ahmed Bilour’s brother, was also killed in a bombing carried out by the Taliban militants. A local ANA leader Mukaram Shah was killed in a blast also claimed by the TTP on Sunday.

The party on Monday had warned to take legal action against the Election Commission for its decision of decreasing security protocol of its leaders.

from Pajhwok
By Javed Hamim Kakar Apr 16, 2013 - 22:10   

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4 'militants' killed in US drone strike in Pakistan

By Bill Roggio - April 14, 2013 - LWJ

The US killed four "militants" in a drone strike in the jihadist hub of Datta Khel in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan. The strike today is the first reported by the US in Pakistan in 23 days.
The CIA-operated, remotely piloted Predators or the more deadly Reapers fired a pair of missiles at a compound in Datta Khel earlier today. Four "militants" were killed in the strike, Pakistani intelligence officials and a local shopkeeper told AFP. The compound that was targeted caught fire after the strike and the bodies of those killed were badly burned.
The exact target of the strike was not disclosed. No senior al Qaeda or Taliban commanders or operatives are reported to have been killed.
Today's strike is just the first this month. The last strike, which also occurred in Datta Khel, took place on March 21. In that airstrike, four "suspected militants and their harborers" were said to have been killed.
The US has launched just 12 drone strikes in Pakistan so far this year, according to data compiled by The Long War Journal. The number of strikes in Pakistan has decreased since the peak in 2010, when 117 such attacks were recorded. In 2011, 64 strikes were launched in Pakistan, and in 2012 there were 46 strikes.

Continue & Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2013/04/4_militants_killed_i_1.php

---
from hindustantimes:

At least four militants have been killed by a US drone strike on Sunday in Pakistan's northwestern tribal belt, security officials said.
The attack took place in Datta Khel town, 35 kilometres (22 miles) west of Miranshah, the main town in the lawless North Waziristan region which borders Afghanistan. The area is a stronghold of Taliban and al Qaeda-linked militants.
Six US drones flew over the area when one of them fired two missiles at a compound in the Manzarkhel area of the town.
"The drones kept hovering at the compound for a while and then one drone fired two missiles at the time of sunset," a local security official said.
"At least four militants were killed in the strike," said the official.
Another security official in the northwestern city of Peshawar, which lies on the edge of the tribal region, confirmed the attack and the casualties.
An eyewitness said that the compound caught fire after the strike leaving all the bodies burnt.
"The bodies of the militants were severely burnt and it was hard to identify them," Haji Gul Badin, a local shopkeeper, said.

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9 killed as bomb hits bus in NW Pakistan

Police officials inspect a damaged van at the site of a bomb blast in the Mattani Bazaar, on the outskirts of Peshawar April 13, 2013. PHOTO: REUTERS

ISLAMABAD, April 13 (Xinhua) -- At least nine people were killed and nine others injured when a bomb targeted a passenger bus in Pakistan's northwest city of Peshawar on Saturday afternoon, local police said.

Shafi Ullah, Senior Superintendent of Police Rural Peshawar, said that the bomb planted on the bus went off when the bus passed by a market in Mattani area on the outskirts of Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

He said that the bus was on its way to the neighboring Kohat district from Peshawar, and most of the
passengers were members of local pro-government militia.

Bomb disposal experts estimated three to five kg explosives were used in the blast.

The injured people including women and kids were rushed to nearby hospital where several of them were said to be in critical condition.

Several vehicles and shops were also damaged in the blast.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet.

from XINHUA
2013-04-13 20:05:13 

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