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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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

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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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US airstrike in Waziristan tribal area kill 4 suspected militants

According to Pakistani intelligence sources, at least four suspected militants have been killed in a US drone strike in the Babar Ghar area on the border of North and South Waziristan Agency.

Sources further added, at least two missiles were fired on a house which left four people, believed to be militants, dead. Two others were also injured.

The area is inhibited by the Hakimullah Mehsud-led TTP fighters and also foreigners but the identity of the suspected militants could not be ascertained yet.

This comes as Pakistan is holding talks with the United States to end drone strikes against suspected Taliban fighters, which sometimes also kill civilians, a senior Pakistani official has said.

The attacks, which are operated by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), have strained Pakistan’s relations with the US. Pakistan says the attacks violate its sovereignty.

According to Jalil Abbas Jilani, the administrative head of Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry, US drone attacks in Pakistan’s tribal areas near the border with Afghanistan have killed 1,900 to 3,000 people. Some 80 percent of the victims were suspected al-Qaeda-linked fighters.

from KHAAMA
By Ghanizada - 08 Feb 2013, 10:14 pm

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Blast kills ten in lower Orakzai; TTP claims responsibility

PESHAWAR: At least ten people were killed Friday in a blast near a security check-post in Kalaya, the agency headquarters of the restive northwestern Orakzai tribal region, officials said.

According to local administration official Fazl-i-Qadir, around 30 others were also injured in the remote-controlled bombing, which appeared to target a gathering of the anti-Taliban Ferozkhel tribesmen near the busy Ferozkhel Chowk in Kalaya.

The Ferozkhel tribes, who oppose the Taliban and have also formed anti-Taliban militias, are frequently targeted by the militants.

An army check-post is also located near the site of attack and some officials said it could also be a possible target for the bombing.

The injured were shifted to the agency headquarters hospital and Hangu hospital.

Meanwhile, by claiming responsibility of the attack, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan’s spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told Dawn.com that they wanted to target Pakistani security forces.

Orakzai is one of Pakistan’s seven semi-autonomous tribal regions in the northwest, where Pakistani Taliban and al Qaeda-linked militants are said to have carved out strongholds.

The agency was the original base of Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud before he moved to South Waziristan to take up the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) leadership after the death of his predecessor, Baituallah Mehsud.

Unlike the six other tribal agencies, Orakzai does not border Afghanistan. The rugged mountainous territory provides a crucial link for militants operating in other tribal regions, as it borders Khyber and Kurram on the Afghan frontier.

It also borders Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and Pakistan’s main northwestern city, as well as the garrison town of Kohat.

from DAWN
Zahir Shah Sherazi
2/8/2013

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Bomb kills 14 Pakistani soldiers in North Waziristan

(Reuters) - A roadside bomb killed as many as 14 Pakistani soldiers in the northern border region of North Waziristan on Sunday, military officials said, a day after the Pakistani Taliban leader called for attacks on the military in the area to stop.

The explosion occurred on a road about 50 km (30 miles) south of the provincial capital of Miranshah. Twenty-one soldiers were wounded in the attack, senior army officials said.

On Saturday, Hakimullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, had circulated a leaflet calling for an end to the Taliban's infrequent attacks on Pakistani soldiers in North Waziristan.

Thousands of Pakistani soldiers are stationed in North Waziristan.

The ceasefire did not apply to the rest of the country, where there are often fierce clashes between the Taliban and security services.

The mountainous tribal region of North Waziristan along the Afghan border is a key stronghold of the Taliban and al-Qaeda. South Waziristan is under the control of the Wazir tribe, who have a peace deal with the Pakistani military.

It was unclear if the leaflet was related to rumours of splits in the movement. It called on local and foreign fighters to unite because "the enemy is trying to divide and rule us".

The Taliban have formed alliances with a number of other militant groups in North Waziristan who are violently opposed to the Pakistani state.

Some Taliban commanders are divided over whether the Pakistani state or NATO forces are their top target.

Those divisions were laid bare in November by an attempted suicide attack on Mullah Nazir, a top militant commander from the Wazir tribe in South Waziristan. He had signed a peace deal with the Pakistani army but supported attacks on NATO forces in Afghanistan.

The attack was widely believed to be the work of rival Taliban commanders, and the Wazir tribe ordered Hakimullah Mehsud's tribe out of their lands.

Mullah Nazir was killed in a drone strike this month and it is unclear if his successor will continue his policies, or what relationship the Wazir tribe will have with the Mehsud tribe.

Pakistani army officials have also told Reuters that there are tensions between Mehsud and his deputy. The two men recently appeared together in a video to deny the allegations.

The decision to halt attacks against the Pakistani army in North Waziristan could signal the Pakistani Taliban's intention to help the Afghan Taliban fight U.S.-led NATO forces in the neighbouring country, or focus more closely on attacking Western targets inside Pakistan.

Or it could be more specifically aimed at unifying local factions. Mehsud's statement specifically addressed both foreign fighters and local Taliban.

from REUTERS
By Haji Mujtaba
MIRANSHAH, Pakistan | Sun Jan 13, 2013 12:13pm GMT
(Additional reporting by Saud Mehsud in Dear Ismail Khan and Jibran Ahmad in Peshawar; Writing by Katharine Houreld; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

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TTP leader Wali Muhammad aka Tufan Mehsud reported killed in Drone strike

Key TTP leader killed in US drone strike

MIRANSHAH: Commander Wali Muhammad aka Tufan Mehsud, a key Pakistani Taliban figure, has reportedly been killed in a US drone strike which also killed 11 other people, sources said on Sunday.

According to reports, the militant commander was a close relative of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan chief Hakimullah Mehsud and succeeded another commander Qari Hussian following his killing.

AFP adds: US drones fired a volley of missiles at militant hideouts in northwest Pakistan on Sunday, killing at least 12 Taliban fighters near the Afghan border, security officials said.

The missile attack took place in Babar Ghar village in South Waziristan, a tribal district bordering Afghanistan which is a stronghold of Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants.

"US drones fired several missiles at two militant compounds. At least 12 militants have been killed and several others were wounded," a security official in Miranshah told AFP under condition of anonymity.

The official earlier said eight militants were killed. "There are members of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) among those who have been killed," he said, adding that a close relative of TTP chief Hakimullah Mehsud was among the dead.

"Most of the militants were from Punjabi Taliban group and a close relative of Hakimullah Mehsud," the official said.

Another security official in the northwestern city of Peshawar confirmed the drone attacks and casualties.

Intelligence officials in Miranshah said that militants had died after US drones fired up to 10 missiles on three militant compounds in the Babar Ghar attack, but the security officials could not verify that account.

Residents said that militants had cordoned off the area and were looking for more dead or wounded in the debris.

from thenews.com.pk
January 06, 2013 - Updated 2015 PKT

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