Pakistani helicopter gunships attacked Taliban bases near the Afghan border yesterday as the army urged NATO forces to seal the frontier to stem cross-border movement of militants.
Pakistani forces launched an offensive to wrest control of the lawless South Waziristan region on Saturday after militants rocked the country with a string of bomb and suicide attacks in recent weeks, killing more than 150 people.
Six people were killed in two suicide bomb attacks at the International Islamic University in Islamabad on Tuesday, prompting authorities to order the closure of educational institutions across the country.
The offensive is being closely followed by the US and other powers embroiled in Afghanistan. The government forces initially faced light resistance but fighting intensified as soldiers approached the militants’ main sanctuaries in the mountains.
Government forces attacked the militant strongholds of Makeen and Ladha with helicopter gunships and artillery yesterday, security officials said. Eight soldiers wounded in overnight fighting were evacuated to the nearby town of Dera Ismail Khan.
Fighting for control of the lawless area is seen a major test of the government’s ability to tackle increasingly brazen insurgents who have carried out daring attacks across Pakistan, including on the army headquarters.
Qari Hussain Mehsud, a senior Taliban commander known as “the mentor of suicide bombers,” called the BBC on Tuesday to take responsibility for the attacks on the Islamic University and said the militants consider “all of Pakistan to now be a war zone.”
The security officials said heavy exchanges of fire were taking place in Kotkai, Hussain’s hometown and also the birthplace of Pakistani Taliban chief, Hakimullah Mehsud. The town is on the approach to a main base area.
Security forces briefly took control of Kotkai in fighting on Monday night but militants recaptured it in a counter-attack.
Meanwhile, the military called on the NATO troops in Afghanistan to seal the border “to prevent cross-border movement and flow of weapons.”
Pakistan Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Chairman General Tariq Majid made the call during talks with Britain’s Chief of Defense Staff, Sir Jock Stirrup.
Pakistani newspapers have in recent days reported that NATO forces had abandoned border posts opposite South Waziristan, raising the possibility of Afghan Taliban coming to help their Pakistani comrades, or of Pakistani Taliban fleeing.
Majid called for “synchronization of effort on both sides and sharing of real-time intelligence.”
‘CROSSING THE LINE’: China’s embassy in Seoul criticized US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson, asking if his ‘hostile’ remarks were authorized by Washington South Korea and the US are in talks over recent public remarks by the commander of US Forces Korea, Seoul’s presidential office said yesterday, after the comments drew sharp criticism from China. In a recent podcast interview, US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson described South Korea as “the dagger in the heart of Asia” from China’s east coast, prompting the Chinese embassy in Seoul to say that he had “truly crossed the line.” The interview came amid growing speculation that Washington might seek to expand the role of US Forces Korea in countering the growing regional influence of China, a key
Through the noise of rushing papers and whirring belts at a print factory in Kyoto, two creators watch their photo essay come to life in broadsheet form — part of an effort to win new audiences in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Despite the decline of the publishing industry, self-publication and handmade “zine” magazines are growing in popularity in Japan, reflecting the nation’s enduring love of paper in the digital era. While speaking to Agence France-Presse at the plant, his hands black with ink, one of the creators, Kazuma Obara, said: “I think [paper] is a medium that engages all five
Australian researchers have trained lab-grown brain cells on a silicon computer chip to play the 1990s shooter game Doom and said they are just scratching the surface of what the neurons could be capable of doing. It is the science-fiction work of biotech boffins at Cortical Labs, who researched and developed the technology that harnesses the workings of the brain’s networking system. Each so-called “biological computer” contains about 200,000 living human brain cells, grown from stem cells that were harvested from blood donations. Having mastered the simple computer game Pong, where a paddle is moved up and down to send a ball
France experienced its hottest spring on record, the French weather service said on Tuesday, after an exceptional early heat wave that also broke highs for the season in England and Wales. Meteo-France said the average nationwide temperature over March to May was 13.8°C — about 1.7°C above the norm, and surpassing records set in 2011 and 2020. “The warmest spring since records began in 1900,” it said in a bulletin. All three months were warmer than average, but the onset of an “unprecedented heatwave” late last month pushed the mercury to highs typically seen at the height of the summer. “Our country had never
RSS