Pakistani Troops kill 15 Taliban Fighters in Orakzai Agency

Friday, April 30, 2010

The Daily News, Pakistan -

Staff Report HANGU:

At least 15 Taliban fighters were killed and several others injured in clashes with the Pakistani security forces in Orakzai Agency, sources said on Thursday.

Sources said the clashes took place in Sheikhan and Shati Maila areas of Lower Orakzai. A security official was also injured in the clash, they added. The terrorists are offering stiff resistance to the security forces, but the forces have killed around 450 in clashes over the past month.

Separately, the Lower Orakzai political agent announced that the displaced would begin returning to their homes by Friday.

Suicide car bomb kills four Pakistani police

AFP, Wednesday, April 28 04:24 pm

Northwest Pakistan is on the front line of the country's battle against the Taliban Movement in the tribal belt on the Afghan border which is subject to Pakistani military operations and US drone attacks.

More than 50 bomb attacks have struck the nuclear-armed country so far this year, killing around 500 people, and a string of deadly attacks this month have been largely concentrated in the northwest.

Wednesday's attacker struck the checkpoint in Pir Bala village, on the main road from Peshawar, Pakistan's northwestern capital, to Mohmand, one of seven districts in tribal belt.

The force of the blast practically destroyed the one-storey mud-brick building at the police post, and damaged nearby houses, witnesses said.

"I was returning from the mosque after dawn prayers when I saw a vehicle speed towards the police post," Saadat Ali, a 21-year-old university student with steel pellet injuries in his shoulder told AFP from hospital.

"Police officials from the post opened fire and then I heard a huge blast. There was thick smoke and I passed out," he added.

Peshawar city police chief Liaquat Ali said four policemen were killed and 11 other people wounded.

"Two policemen are in a critical condition," he told AFP.

Those who were killed had been on duty at the checkpoint at the time of the attack, between 4:30 and 5:00 am, said police official Mussarat Khan.

"The small building at the police checkpoint was destroyed. A nearby house and a mosque were also damaged," he said.

Peshawar, with its bustling markets and its profile as a regional headquarters for government and security forces, has been on the front line of deadly attacks.

The teeming city runs into the tribal belt, which Washington calls the most dangerous place on earth and a global headquarters of Al-Qaeda.

Ali told reporters the bomber intended to strike elsewhere in the city of 2.5 million and only detonated his vehicle when he was stopped.

Pir Bala straddles Warsak Road, which links Peshawar to the mountains of the tribal badlands. This area became a stronghold for hundreds of extremists who fled Afghanistan after the US-led invasion in late 2001.

Mohammad Gul, a police official on duty at Peshawar's Lady Reading Hospital, confirmed the death toll and said a cleric and a woman were among the wounded.

Siraj Ahmad, a local administration official in Peshawar, said five civilians were among the 11 people wounded.

More than 880 people have been killed in nearly 100 drone strikes in Pakistan since August 2008. The bombing raids fuel anti-American sentiment in Muslim Pakistan and draw public condemnation from the government.