Market bomb, US missiles kill 20 in Pakistan
Source: ABC
A militant commander and 15 others were killed in the explosion in the village of Dars in the Upper Tirah valley. The blast also damaged a mosque and some shops, leading security officials to suspect it might result from a feud between rival Islamist factions.
In total 16 people were killed and more than 20 injured, a local security official said.
A witness who runs a private telephone exchange in the area told AFP: "It was a huge blast. I saw 16 dead bodies. I saw a lot of injured people lying on the ground."
Azam Khan, a deputy leader of the Lashkar-e-Islam militant group, was among the dead, local residents and an intelligence official said.
Other details on whether it was a planted bomb or suicide attack could not immediately be confirmed.
One regional official said the bomb exploded as about 80 people gathered around the mosque, a cattle market and bazaar - said by residents also to sell hashish - and near a Lashkar-e-Islam base.
Lashkar-e-Islam (Army of Islam) is a militant group with ideological ties to the Taliban and the target of a Pakistani military operation to oust it from Khyber. Intelligence officials blamed warring extremist factions for the blast.
Islamist militants have orchestrated a deadly bombing campaign to avenge the Pakistani government's alliance with the United States in the "war on terror".
Their attacks have killed more than 3,000 people since July 2007.
Elsewhere in the tribal belt, two US missiles destroyed a militant compound and vehicle in North Waziristan, which has become the arena for a covert US drone campaign against Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders.
An intelligence official in Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, said four militants were killed by the missiles, including three Afghans attached to the Haqqani network.
- AFP
Posted
A bomb attack and a US missile strike killed 20 people in north-west Pakistan as Islamabad raised fresh concerns about knock-on instability from a major US-led offensive in Afghanistan.
The bomb exploded in a market controlled by Islamist militants in Khyber, which is part of a NATO supply route to troops in Afghanistan and has been branded an Al Qaeda headquarters by Washington.A militant commander and 15 others were killed in the explosion in the village of Dars in the Upper Tirah valley. The blast also damaged a mosque and some shops, leading security officials to suspect it might result from a feud between rival Islamist factions.
In total 16 people were killed and more than 20 injured, a local security official said.
A witness who runs a private telephone exchange in the area told AFP: "It was a huge blast. I saw 16 dead bodies. I saw a lot of injured people lying on the ground."
Azam Khan, a deputy leader of the Lashkar-e-Islam militant group, was among the dead, local residents and an intelligence official said.
Other details on whether it was a planted bomb or suicide attack could not immediately be confirmed.
One regional official said the bomb exploded as about 80 people gathered around the mosque, a cattle market and bazaar - said by residents also to sell hashish - and near a Lashkar-e-Islam base.
Lashkar-e-Islam (Army of Islam) is a militant group with ideological ties to the Taliban and the target of a Pakistani military operation to oust it from Khyber. Intelligence officials blamed warring extremist factions for the blast.
Islamist militants have orchestrated a deadly bombing campaign to avenge the Pakistani government's alliance with the United States in the "war on terror".
Their attacks have killed more than 3,000 people since July 2007.
Elsewhere in the tribal belt, two US missiles destroyed a militant compound and vehicle in North Waziristan, which has become the arena for a covert US drone campaign against Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders.
An intelligence official in Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, said four militants were killed by the missiles, including three Afghans attached to the Haqqani network.
- AFP
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