NWA violence kills 26

MIRANSHAH—A roadside bomb killed 14 bus passengers in tribal belt bordering Afghanistan Wednesday, while two troops and 10 militants died in a clash nearby, officials said.
The incidents both happened in North Waziristan where US officials allege that Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network and its pro-Taliban allies have regrouped to launch attacks in the region and in the West. Pakistan has been rocked by a string of deadly militant attacks, many of them targeting security forces, since troops staged a bloody raid on the Al-Qaeda-linked Lal Masjid in Islamabad in July.
The blast happened on a road that frequently used by Pak military convoys near Mir Ali, the second biggest town in North Waziristan, security officials said. “The bus hit an explosive device planted on the road by militants, destroying it completely. Fourteen people died on the spot and five injured were taken to hospital,” one official told newsmen.
It was the second deadly bombing in Pakistan this week, after a suicide bomber disguised in a woman’s burqa killed 16 people on Monday in the garrison town of Bannu, which itself borders on North Waziristan. The blast targeting the bus happened hours after pro-Taliban militants raided a security checkpost near Mir Ali in a pre-dawn assault, killing two soldiers and wounding another four, the military said.
“Ten miscreants were killed in the resulting clash,” ISPR spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad told newsmen. Security officials in the region said earlier that troops responded with artillery fire after the militants attacked them with rockets.
The US military said on Tuesday that Al-Qaeda was re-emerging in the lawless tribal areas along the Afghan frontier despite the presence of around 90,000 Pakistani troops. A peace deal signed between the government and militants in September 2006 in North Waziristan — broke down in July after the Lal Masjid was raided.
Two security forces’ personnel were killed and four others injured when the miscreants attacked their base in Spin Wam area, with heavy weapons, local sources said on Wednesday. In their retaliatory strikes, the forces killed 12 miscreants and injured scores of others.
Military spokesman Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad also confirmed the gun battle near Tull area of North Waziristan. In another attack, the miscreants fired rockets at Tull Fort at Razmak Road. The security men returned fire but no casualties were reported in the incident.
A roadside explosive device ripped through a passenger minibus near Mir Ali in North Waziristan Agency on Wednesday, killing at least 14 people.
The bus hit an explosive device planted on the road by militants, destroying it completely. Fourteen people died on the spot and five injured were taken to hospital, a local TV channel reported.
According to Political administration sources, the pickup carrying passengers was heading towards Shanwan, a North Waziristan area from Thall, Hungo, when it hit with landmine near Buland Khail. As a result, 14 people died on the spot while the injured were rushed to the hospital. The Hospital sources told this scribe that the injured are in critical condition.
Bombings and attacks have soared since July when security forces stormed in Lal Masjid in Islamabad, and a ceasefire with pro-Taleban militants in the border area broke down.
Many of the attacks have been directed at the security forces. More than 200 soldiers and policemen are said to be among the dead.

—Agencies