Attacks killed nine Pakistani soldiers on Tuesday, targeting troops in the militant-infested tribal badlands near Afghanistan and further south on the border with Iran, officials said.
The deadliest attack killed five Frontier Corps (FC) paramilitary troops travelling in a routine convoy between the towns of Turbat and Mand, some 680 kilometres southwest of Quetta. The Balochistan Liberation Front claimed responsibility for the attack. “Five paramilitary soldiers were martyred and five others were wounded in the bomb blast,” a paramilitary commander told AFP.
The convoy was en route to a remote border base near the town of Mand, he said requesting anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to media. Those killed were identified as Subedar Sultan, Naik Hajab Noor, Lance Naik Khan Mohammad and two soldiers Rozi Khan and Abdul Manan.
The local administration in Turbat as well as in nearby Tump was unaware of the details of the incident, saying its staff was not permitted by FC officials to visit the site of the explosion when they tried. In the tribal belt, three soldiers were killed in North Waziristan Agency, considered a leading militant fortress and where Pakistan is under huge US pressure to launch an offensive against the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network.
Officials said a bomb was detonated by remote-control near Miranshah, the headquarters of the agency, soon after the convoy left for the town of Datta Khel, ripping through a truck carrying army and paramilitary troops. “Three soldiers were killed and 15 wounded,” an intelligence official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Another security official said the bomb was planted in a drain near the market in Miranshah and exploded at a time when authorities had imposed a routine curfew so the military convoy could go past. In the neighbouring district of South Waziristan, a paramilitary soldier was killed when Taliban militants attacked a checkpost in the Makeen area, security officials in Peshawar said.
US drone kills at least 4 in NWA:
A US drone strike late on Tuesday killed at least four militants in the tribal areas, local security officials said. The drone fired two missiles at a guesthouse in Mir Ali, about 25 kilometres east of Miranshah, the headquarters of North Waziristan Agency, the officials said.
