Pakistani troops twice opened fire to repel two US helicopter gunships that violated Pakistani airspace in a tribal region bordering Afghanistan, officials said yesterday.
The incidents happened about half an hour apart on Sunday evening near Lwara Mundi village in North Waziristan, where Pakistani forces have been battling Taliban and al-Qaeda militants, they said.
“Pakistani forces fired at two US gunships which violated Pakistan’s airspace and forced them to return to Afghanistan,” a local security official said on condition of anonymity. “The helicopters flew back after our troops fired shots at them.”
A senior security official based in Islamabad said later that the helicopters were repelled on two separate occasions by both army troops and soldiers from the paramilitary Frontier Corps.
“The helicopters were heading towards our border. We were alert and when they were right on the boundary line we started aerial firing. They hovered for a few minutes and went back,” the official said. “About 30 minutes later they made another attempt. We retaliated again.”
There was no immediate comment from the Pakistani military or the US-led coalition in Kabul.
The incident came as anger grows in Pakistan at raids from Afghanistan by US-led troops targeting extremist hideouts.
Meanwhile, gunmen ambushed a car carrying a top Afghan diplomat in the northwest yesterday, killing his driver and kidnapping the envoy, officials said.
Ambassador-designate Abdul Khaliq Farahi was heading from the Afghan mission toward his home in Peshawar when gunmen stopped the vehicle, a spokesman for the consulate said.
In related news, British Airways has suspended all flights to Pakistan because of security fears after the suicide truck-bomb blast at the Islamabad Marriott killed at least 53 people on Saturday night, an airline spokesman said yesterday.
There has been no claim of responsibility for the blast, but the government said it expected the investigation would lead to al-Qaeda and Taliban militants.
In a sign of growing international unease about deteriorating security, British Airways said it had suspended its six flights a week to the country.
“Our people at headquarters are reviewing the security situation,” airline spokesman Sohail Rehman said.
The bombing has also raised fresh calls for Pakistan’s government to rethink its alliance with the US and military operations against Islamist militants.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique