Suicide bomber kills 24 Pakistani troops
Pastor Dale Morgan
Suicide bomber kills 24 Pakistani troops*
MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (AFP) - - At least 24 Pakistani soldiers died and
scores were wounded when a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-packed
car into their convoy in an Afghan border region, the military said
Saturday.
The paramilitary convoy was heading to Miranshah, the main town of the
North Waziristan tribal district, when the bomber attacked it at around
11:30 am (0630 GMT), top military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad
told AFP.
More than two dozen officers of the frontier constabulary were wounded
in the blast, said Arshad earlier. The death toll rose as some of the
injured died and more bodies were recovered from "the badly mangled
wreckage," he said.
The attack came days after Pakistan's US-backed military ruler President
Pervez Musharraf fuelled Islamist anger with an army assault on a
pro-Taliban mosque complex in Islamabad that left 86 dead, most of them
militants.
Thousands of Islamic protesters Friday called for jihad (holy war) and
burnt effigies of Musharraf and a puppet of "Uncle Sam," the icon of the
United States, which has backed Musharraf as an ally in its "war on terror."
Musharraf has warned he will root out extremists and has deployed
thousands of extra troops to northwestern border areas with Afghanistan,
remote and lawless regions that have become hideouts for the Taliban and
Al-Qaeda.
"Troops have been deployed in Swat district and in Dera Ismail Khan
following instructions by President Musharraf to beef up security to
counter the threat of extremist forces in the region," a military
official said.
In another attack in North Waziristan Saturday, two soldiers were
wounded by an improvised explosive device that hit their vehicle in the
town of Bannu.
Another soldier was shot and wounded at a security checkpost just
outside Miranshah, where security forces also said they defused two
missiles set up to target a military camp in the town.
A local militant commander threatened "guerrilla war" against the
military in the tribal region over the setting up last week of new check
posts and issued a Sunday deadline for them to leave the posts.
Speaking from an undisclosed location, the pro-Taliban militant accused
the government of violating a peace deal signed with tribes and
militants last September despite heavy criticism from Western allies and
Afghanistan.
"If the government troops do not vacate the checkposts by July 15, we
will end the existing peace agreement with the government and launch a
guerrilla war," Farhad told AFP by telephone.
Two suicide blasts killed eight people on Thursday, and police Friday
said they seized three men and a car packed with seven suicide vests,
100 mortar shells and other explosives in northwestern Dera Ismail Khan.