Thursday, May 28, 2009

DTN News: Pakistan Army Facing Tough Battle Ahead With Militants In Mingora, Swat Valley - Part #3 / Fresh Blasts Hit Peshawar City

DTN News: Pakistan Army Facing Tough Battle Ahead With Militants In Mingora, Swat Valley - Part #3 / Fresh Blasts Hit Peshawar City
(NSI News Source Info) PESHAWAR - May 28, 2009: At least 10 people have been killed in two separate attacks in the Pakistani city of Peshawar. Six were killed and about 70 injured when two bombs exploded at a busy market, police said. Shortly after, a suicide bomber attacked a military checkpoint on the city outskirts, killing four soldiers. The attacks came hours after Pakistani Taliban warned of further violence following a gun and bomb attack in Lahore which killed at least 24 people. Pakistani men react as a car burns in Qissa Khawani bazaar after a bomb blast in Peshawar Pakistan, Thursday, May 28, 2009. Militants detonated two bombs in a busy market and attacked two police checkpoints in northern Pakistan on Thursday, killing at least 14 people, wounding scores more and testing the resolve of the government as it takes on the Taliban in the Swat Valley. In the initial Peshawar attacks, bombs were on two motorcycles and detonated by timers, bomb disposal squad chief Shafqat Malik told reporters, according to Associated Press news agency. 'Sudden blast' Tahir Ali Shar, a resident of the Peshawar, told Reuters news agency he could see about 15 wounded people lying on the ground. Some of the wounded are believed to be in a serious condition. Shops and vehicles were damaged and television images showed men trying to douse flames, while injured people were being dragged out of the market to safety. "It was a sudden blast and then there was fire all around, a cloud of smoke filled the sky," injured shopkeeper Khair Uddin told Reuters news agency. Gunmen started shooting in the narrow alleyways as police arrived. Police later said two suspected militants had been killed and two arrested. While the gunfight was going on, a suicide bomber drove a car laden with explosives at a military checkpoint on the outskirts. The apparent co-ordination of the attacks, coming so soon after Lahore and the Taliban warning, could herald a new wave of violence in Pakistani cities, says the BBC's Barbara Plett in Islamabad. Pakistani men arrive at the scene after a bomb blast at Qissa Khawani bazaar in Peshawar, Pakistan, on Thursday, May 28, 2009. An officer says a suspected suicide bomber attacked a police checkpoint in Peshawar shortly after two deadly bomb blasts at a market in the northern Pakistani city. Police official Yaseen Khan said at least four police and the attacker were killed in the blast on the outskirts of Peshawar. Also on Thursday, a bomb killed at least three people and injured several in the town of Dera Ismail Khan, about 186 miles, (300km) south of Peshawar. Peshawar is the capital of the North Western Frontier Province and has seen an increase in violence in the past three weeks: • Six days ago a car bomb outside a cinema in a busy marketplace killed at least six people and injured about 70 • On 16 May a car bomb exploded in the densely populated Kashkal area, killing at least 11 people and injuring many others. Swat revenge The attack in Lahore a day earlier was in response to the army's operation in the Swat valley, Taliban deputy Hakimullah Mehsud told the BBC by phone. The army is claiming sweeping victories against Taliban insurgents in the Swat valley, near the Afghan border. Pakistani special forces search for suspects involved in an explosion in Peshawar, Pakistan, Thursday, May 28, 2009. An officer says a suspected suicide bomber attacked a police checkpoint in Peshawar shortly after two deadly bomb blasts at a market in the northern Pakistani city. Police official Yaseen Khan said at least four police and the attacker were killed in the blast on the outskirts of Peshawar. The army says more than 1,000 militants have been killed in the past month. There has been no independent confirmation of the figure. It says it has recaptured 70% of Swat's main city, Mingora, and expects to secure it in a matter of days. Hakimullah Mehsud, Taliban commander for Orakzai and Khyber tribal regions, called on citizens to "evacuate their cities" He warned of further attacks on "government targets" in the Pakistani cities of Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Multan. Pakistan's government said in the immediate aftermath of the Lahore bomb that it suspected it to be an act of revenge by militants in Swat. The attack on Wednesday, which injured more than 200 people, targeted buildings belonging to the police and intelligence agency, the ISI. A group of men shot at police officers before detonating a powerful car bomb, reportedly killing at least one ISI agent and 12 police officers, along with one child.

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