Three Pakistan Soldiers Killed In Attacks

pakistan

Three soldiers were killed and four wounded in bomb attacks on military convoys in a restive Pakistani tribal region while two policemen were gunned down in the largest city Karachi on Sunday, officials said.

The bomb attacks took place in North Waziristan, a bastion of militants linked to the Taliban and Al Qaida.

“A military convoy comprising 35 vehicles was on its way to the northwestern town of Bannu from Razmak when an improvised explosive device planted along the roadside went off, killing three soldiers,” a local intelligence official said.

The official, who requested anonymity, said two soldiers were wounded in the explosion 70 kilometres south of Miranshah, the main town in the region.

Another two soldiers were wounded in a second bomb attack on a military convoy 20 kilometres east of Miranshah.

A local tribal police official, Ali Muhammad, confirmed the two attacks and casualties.

North Waziristan is one of seven semi-autonomous tribal regions and has been the scene of frequent drone strikes by the US.

The deputy commander of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, Waliur Rehman, was killed along with at least five others in a drone strike on a house in North Waziristan on May 29.

Pakistani troops have been fighting for years against homegrown insurgents in the northwestern tribal belt, but the US has accused them of not doing enough to crack down on Taliban and other militants who cross the border to fight in Afghanistan.

In Karachi, four gunmen riding two motorbikes opened fire on a police vehicle in the Patel Para area and killed two policemen on Sunday, senior local police official Usman Bajwa said.

Nobody has so far claimed responsibility. Karachi, a city of 18 million people, has been plagued by murders, kidnappings and politically linked violence. [AFP]