3 US Solders, 16 Taliban Fighters, Pakistani Soldier, 3 Children Killed, 45 Injured in War Attacks

February 3, 2010

Bomb in Pakistan kills 3 U.S. soldiers, 3 children 

Reuters, Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Hazrat Ali Bacha

Pakistan's Taliban claimed responsibility for a bomb on Wednesday that killed three U.S. soldiers outside a girls school in the northwest of the country and threatened more attacks on Americans.

In scenes that have become familiar in the struggle between Taliban insurgents and the state, a young girl trapped below the stones of a collapsed wall cried out for help after the blast.

Three children and a Pakistani paramilitary soldier were also killed and 45 people were wounded in the blast near Swat Valley, where the government mounted a crackdown nearly a year ago it said had cleared out Taliban militants.

"We will continue such attacks on Americans," Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.

The blast, triggered by a remote-controlled device, was a grim reminder of the resilience of Taliban fighters determined to topple the government of President Asif Ali Zardari, a deeply unpopular pro-American leader.

Pakistan's Taliban have bombed markets, schools and military and police facilities despite major government security offensives that have destroyed some of their bases and U.S. drone aircraft strikes that have killed their leaders.

The three U.S. soldiers were part of a small unit that trains Pakistani Frontier Corps responsible for security in northwestern areas near the Afghan border seen as part of a global militant hub.

They were on their way to attend the opening ceremony of a new girls school that had recently been renovated with U.S. humanitarian assistance when the bomb exploded, leaving a crater a few feet away from the school.

PREVIOUS ATTACKS

Militants have previously attacked U.S. diplomats and facilities in Pakistan.

"The carnage at the school in Lower Dir clearly shows the terrorists' vision," said a U.S. embassy statement.

The appearance of Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud, in a farewell video with the suicide bomber who killed seven CIA employees in Afghanistan in December, suggests the group poses an increasingly complex threat to Pakistan's security.

The United States is leaning heavily on long-time ally Pakistan to help it stabilise Afghanistan, a top foreign policy priority for President Barack Obama.

It wants Islamabad to eliminate al Qaeda and Afghan Taliban militants who cross over the border to attack U.S.- and NATO-led troops in Afghanistan.

But nuclear-armed Pakistan is focussed on fighting homegrown Taliban who have blown up dozens of girls' schools and publicly flogged and executed those deemed immoral by an austere interpretation of Islamic rule they are bent on imposing.

The possibility that some of his aides will be prosecuted under revived corruption charges and growing public frustrations with a sluggish economy and chronic power cuts have also piled pressure on Zardari.

U.S. drone strikes in northwest Pakistan have intensified since the attack on the CIA in Afghanistan, but analysts say they are unlikely to pose a long-term danger to the Taliban, who seem to carry out suicide bombings at will.

The death toll from drone attacks on Tuesday night -- the heaviest ever in terms of the number of missiles fired -- has risen to 31, security officials said.

(Additional reporting by Zeeshan Haider and Kamran Haider; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by David Fox)

16 killed as drones fire 18 missiles on NWA village

* Eight drones take part in strike at Datta Khel village

The Daily News (Pakistan), Wednesday, February 03, 2010

MIRANSHAH:

At least 16 Taliban were killed on Tuesday after US drones fired 18 missiles at a village in North Waziristan, security officials said.

Local administration and intelligence officials confirmed the deaths after the volley of strikes reportedly struck Taliban hideouts and a training centre at three places in the village.

“Up to eight US drones fired some 18 missiles at multiple Taliban targets in Datta Khel village,” a senior security official told AFP.

“At least 16 militants were killed in the missile strikes,” the official said, after earlier putting the death toll at 10.

Destroyed: Two vehicles belonging to the terrorists were also destroyed in the strike at Datta Khel, a security official said on condition of anonymity.

The US has stepped up drone strikes on Taliban sanctuaries on the Pakistani side of the Afghan border since a December 30 suicide bombing killed seven CIA operatives at a US base in the eastern Afghan province of Khost.

The latest drone attack, the 13th this month according to a Reuters tally, was the heaviest ever in terms of the number of missiles fired. agencies

US missile volley kills 16 militants in Pakistan

AFP, Wed, Jan 3, 2010, 03:08 am

Hasbanullah Khan

A swarm of US drones fired off a large volley of missiles on an extremist stronghold in the northwestern tribal region of Pakistan, killing at least 16 militants, security officials said.

The strike late Tuesday, which officials said involved 18 missiles fired from eight unmanned spy planes, is the latest in a series of US attacks on the lawless tribal area near the Afghanistan border.

It is a known stronghold of homegrown Islamist militant groups and extremists who fled Afghanistan after the US-led invasion toppled the hardline Taliban regime in late 2001.

"Up to eight US drones fired some 18 missiles at multiple militant targets in Dattakhel village," a senior security official told AFP. "At least 16 militants were killed in the missile strikes."

Local administration and intelligence officials confirmed the deaths after the missile barrage reportedly struck militant hideouts and a training centre in three places in the village.

Residents of Miranshah, the main town in the North Waziristan tribal district, said they saw the drones flying overhead and heard the explosions from Dattakhel, 40 kilometres (25 miles) west of the town.

Drone bombings have soared recently as US President Barack Obama puts Pakistan at the heart of his administration's fight against Al-Qaeda and Islamist extremists. More than 700 people have been killed in such strikes since August 2008.

The Pakistani government publicly condemns the strikes, which fuel anti-American sentiment in Muslim Pakistan, but US officials say they are necessary to protect foreign soldiers stationed in Afghanistan and have killed a number of high-value extremists.

Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud has been a prime target of the drone attacks and reports are swirling that he died of injuries sustained in a January strike on the Taliban stronghold of North Waziristan.

The Taliban however flatly deny that he is dead and Mehsud has purportedly issued audio tapes saying he is alive and well.

Mehsud assumed leadership of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), blamed for the deaths of thousands of people in attacks, after his predecessor, Baitullah Mehsud, was killed in a US drone strike in August last year.

He claimed responsibility for a December suicide bombing on the CIA at a US base in Afghanistan -- the deadliest attack on the US spy agency in 26 years.

Washington is also pressing Islamabad to tackle militants in the northwest who use Pakistan soil to launch attacks in Afghanistan, where about 113,000 troops under US and NATO command are battling a Taliban-led insurgency.

A Pakistani military commander said a new air and ground offensive had killed up to 80 militants Tuesday in the northern extremity of the semi-autonomous tribal belt, considered by Washington to be the most dangerous place on the planet.

The paramilitary Frontier Corps stepped up an offensive targeting Taliban havens in Bajaur district after a suicide bombing killed 17 people at a military checkpoint on Saturday.

The raids were concentrated around Mamoond, about 12 kilometres (eight miles) northwest of Khar, a notorious Taliban hideout which Pakistan failed to clear in past offensives against militant havens.

"When we started the operation, it was estimated that there were about 1,000 militants present in the area and 80 of them have been killed so far," Colonel Rana Munnawar told reporters in the village of Sawai.

There was no independent confirmation of the toll.

Munnawar claimed the offensive had dislodged a Taliban command and control system, but expected main operations to take another 15 days.

Pakistan first launched offensives in the district in August 2008 and has claimed several times to have eliminated the Islamist militant threat there.