Up to 14 Pakistanis killed in militant attack (Sunday)

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Up to 14 Pakistanis killed in militant attack
Sun Jul 15, 2007 3:52AM EDT

By Zeeshan Haider

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Up to 14 Pakistanis, including 11 soldiers,
were killed in an ambush on a convoy on Sunday, taking the death
toll to 38 in attacks in the northwest of the country in the past
24 hours, officials said.

The attacks appear to be revenge for a commando assault on a
radical mosque in the capital last week in which 75 supporters
of hardline clerics and nine soldiers were killed, security
officials said.

Militants ambushed a convoy of police and paramilitary troops
passing through Matta town of North West Frontier Province,
where pro-Taliban militants are known to operate.

Two roadside bombs and two suicide bombers struck the convoy
in the attack in the Swat district, said military spokesman
Major-General Arshad Waheed. Three civilians were also killed.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSISL4374620070715

---

EDIT: Story updated at link

Original Headline: Twelve Pakistani forces killed in militant attack

Saturday: 18 Troops Die in Pakistan Suicide Attack (AP via LBN)

Related: 38 Dead in 2 Convoy Bombings in Pakistan - AP

[Double T]

1. Looks like the whole ME is about to decline and disintegrate into war.

Sure glad 'bushco the conquerer' is here and there to 'protect' US ALL.

[IndianaGreen]

3. Pakistan and Afghanistan are in West Asia, and it seems like the Taleban are having a surge...

of their own.

While the Taleban are Afghan, their version of Islam was what was taught at the Red Mosque in Islamabad. Members of Pakistan's intelligence service worshipped at that mosque. I think that Musharraf is on his way out.

[Double T]

4. Musharraf gone. Then what? Who will be the keeper of the nukes?

[IndianaGreen]

5. Musharraf is a dictator that must be deposed

The problem is that the longer he waits, the more likely that he won't be replaced by the democratic opposition, but by a radical Islamic regime.

What happens if the worst case scenario happens? Al-Qaeda will become a nuclear power, that's what.

We have very limited options. Our armies are being decimated in Iraq. The Taleban is resurgent in Afghanistan, and they have become very wealthy thanks to the opium trade. Pakistan is the next domino.

[IndianaGreen]

2. Here is the BBC report on this. Looks like a Pakistani version of Tet Offensive

Pakistan troops die in new attack

At least 10 Pakistani soldiers have been killed by militants in the country's north-west, the second deadly attack in as many days.

The attacks follow a week-long army siege of radicals in the Red Mosque in Islamabad that left 102 people dead and sparked fears of militant reprisals.

Sunday's attack on a convoy in the Swat area of North West Frontier Province involved bomb blasts and gunfire.

On Saturday, a suicide bomber killed 24 soldiers in nearby North Waziristan.

<snip>

Another 40 troops were injured in Sunday's attack near the town of Matta, local police said.

<snip>

Saturday's attack on an army convoy near the village of Daznary, about 50km (30 miles) north of Miranshah, left about 30 injured in addition to the 24 killed.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6899367.stm

[Eugene]

6. Pakistan militants say pulling out of peace pact

Source: Reuters

Pakistan militants say pulling out of peace pact
15 Jul 2007 11:40:05 GMT
Source: Reuters

(Adds detail, byline)

By Haji Mujtaba

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan, July 15 (Reuters) - Pro-Taliban militants
in Pakistan's restive North Waziristan tribal region announced on
Sunday they were pulling out of a peace deal with the government,
accusing authorities of violating the pact.

North Waziristan is a hotbed of support for al Qaeda and Taliban
militants and authorities signed a peace deal with the local
fighters in September in a bid to marginalise their foreign allies.

"The Taliban are forced to announce the end of the agreement,"
the leadership council or shura of the militants said in a
statement issued in Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan.

Under the pact, authorities agreed to stop military operations
against the militants in return for their pledge that they would
not send fighters across the border into Afghanistan and would
not launch attacks on security forces and government officials
in North Waziristan.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L15206210.htm

[ohio2007]

7. Taliban deploy 10,000 fighters for attack: commander

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2733832

The Taliban spring offensive will make some noise in the badlands of Pakistan,their core supporters are at risk.


btw, The peace plan was supposed to have all foreigners leave the country or swear off violence forever.

..... MIRANSHAH, Pakistan, July 15 (Reuters) - Pro-Taliban militants
in Pakistan's restive North Waziristan tribal region announced on
Sunday they were pulling out of a peace deal
........


So.
Now that the red jihad factory mosque has been removed,we will see if the truce holds in warizistan after the breaking news spreads over that region,not just the knee jerk reactions of the nutjobs currently getting this front page coverage.

[Eugene]

8. Fresh attacks in NW Pakistan, 29 killed

Source: Reuters

Fresh attacks in NW Pakistan, 29 killed
15 Jul 2007 13:54:03 GMT
Source: Reuters

(Updates death toll, adds detail)

By Zeeshan Haider

ISLAMABAD, July 15 (Reuters) - Nearly 30 people were killed
in northwest Pakistan on Sunday in a surge of militant
violence which officials said could be aimed at avenging the
commando assault on a radical mosque in the capital last week.

-snip-

Early on Sunday, 14 people, 11 of them paramilitary soldiers,
were killed in a suicide-bomb ambush on a patrol in the scenic
Swat valley in North West Frontier Province (NWFP).

Hours later, a suicide bomber targeted a police recruiting
centre in the city of Dera Ismail Khan, in the same province,
killing 18 and wounding 60, most of them young men taking a
police entrance exam, hospital officials said.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SP19596.htm

[IndianaGreen]

9. I don't know why this story is not getting more play in US media, it is really big

Pakistan has always been a key player in whatever happens in Afghanistan, and by extension, Iraq.

One can only wonder what would had happened had Bush sent reinforcements to Tora Bora, as requested by the field commander when he had bin Laden surrounded, instead of pulling troops out of Afghanistan to have his glorious war in Iraq.

I do firmly believe that it was inconvenient for the Bush regime to have finished bin Laden in early 2002. Bush needed the war on terra to continue, not to end.