Monday, August 17, 2009

DTN News: Pakistan TODAY August 17, 2009 ~ Pakistani Troops Hurt In Suicide Bombing

DTN News: Pakistan TODAY August 17, 2009 ~ Pakistani Troops Hurt In Suicide Bombing *Source: DTN News / Int'l Media (NSI News Source Info) PESHAWAR, Pakistan - August 17, 2009: A suicide bomber blew himself up as soldiers tried to arrest him, a military spokesman in northwest Pakistan said Monday, and seven Taliban militants were killed separately in a gunfight. The suicide bomber blew himself up overnight in the town of Mingora, in the Swat valley, after being "encircled" by the soldiers, the military spokesman in the area told AFP. Four soldiers were lightly wounded in the explosion. Separately, seven Taliban militants were killed in Kabal village, also in the Swat valley, during an exchange of fire with troops late Sunday, the spokesman added. Another senior military official confirmed the suicide attack and gunfight casualties. Pakistan's military claims to have cleared Swat of Islamist extremists in an offensive launched earlier this year after militants extended their grip into the valley. Swat slipped out of government control after radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah mounted a violent campaign in which his followers beheaded opponents, burnt schools and fought government troops to enforce sharia law. The Pakistani army launched an offensive in late April to dislodge Taliban guerrillas from the districts of Buner, Lower Dir and Swat after rebels flouted a peace deal and marched further south towards the capital, Islamabad. Pakistani officials show ammunition allegedly recovered from Pakistani Talibans in Karachi, Pakistan on Saturday, Aug. 15, 2009. According to police official, a large quantity of ammunition was recovered from the Taliban, planning violence in Karachi and killing of high officials. Pakistan says more than 1,800 militants and over 166 security personnel have been killed in the offensive since late April, but the death tolls are impossible to verify independently.

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