Security forces yesterday launched a hunt for suspected Taliban militants who fired rockets toward their base in northwest Pakistan, killing 10 people near a key supply route for international forces in Afghanistan, an official said.
The militants fired three rockets late on Thursday near the town of Landi Kotal, about 10km west of the Afghan border, said Rashid Khan, an area government administrator.
The rockets missed the security forces’ base, but one hit the town’s commercial area, killing 10 civilians, injuring 38 and setting fire to a timber yard and 20 nearby shops, Khan said.
The other two rockets fell in an open area and caused no casualties, he said.
Khan said troops opened fire toward the site of the launch and were searching the area yesterday to track and capture the attackers.
The town lies in Pakistan’s tribal region on a key road where militants have carried out a wave of attacks on trucks carrying supplies to US and NATO troops in Afghanistan.
Pakistan security forces have undertaken several operations to push militants back from the road and the nearby gateway city of Peshawar.
Rising Taliban attacks have raised doubts about the reliability of the critical supply routes through Pakistan, prompting the US and NATO to seek alternatives. Afghan-based US and NATO forces get up to 75 percent of their supplies via routes through Pakistan.
Suspected Taliban militants have repeatedly struck transport depots near Peshawar in recent months, destroying scores of military vehicles.
Attacks on the road through the Khyber Pass to the Afghan border have repeatedly forced temporary closures.
US and NATO officials insist the attacks have little impact on their operations but are looking at ways to bring more supplies into Afghanistan through central Asia.
Recent political turmoil in Pakistan has raised concerns that the government will shift its focus away from its battle against al-Qaeda and Taliban militants.
On Thursday, the government appealed court rulings against opposition leaders that triggered weeks of political crisis.
Last month, the Supreme Court disqualified former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his politician brother Shahbaz from holding elected office because of controversial convictions dating back to the rule of former president Pervez Musharraf.
The court ruling prompted Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari to suspend the administration in the critical province of Punjab, handing its control to the federally appointed governor. That infuriated the Sharifs, who accused Zardari of a power grab.
However, the Sharifs and activist lawyers called off plans to stage an indefinite protest outside the federal parliament on Monday after the government agreed to file the court appeals and reinstate several judges ousted by Musharraf.
Meanwhile, police arrested two suspected arms smugglers and seized a weapons cache yesterday in the southwestern province of Baluchistan near the Afghan border, an official said.
Police raided an orchard in Nisai village, 400km east of the provincial capital Quetta.
“We seized 41 grenades, four rocket-propelled grenades, one anti-aircraft gun and two machine guns, and arrested two people in Nisai,” senior police official Ghulam Dastgir said.
“The weapons were hidden in an orchard and there was no resistance during the raid as the suspects were sleeping,” he said.
A Zurich city councilor has apologized and reportedly sought police protection against threats after she fired a sport pistol at an auction poster of a 14th-century Madonna and child painting, and posted images of their bullet-ridden faces on social media. Green-Liberal party official Sanija Ameti, 32, put the images on Instagram over the weekend before quickly pulling them down. She later wrote on social media that she had been practicing shots from about 10m and only found the poster as “big enough” for a suitable target. “I apologize to the people who were hurt by my post. I deleted it immediately when I
The governor of Ohio is to send law enforcement and millions of dollars in healthcare resources to the city of Springfield as it faces a surge in temporary Haitian migrants. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday said that he does not oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which about 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020, but said the federal government must do more to help affected communities. On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost directed his office to research legal avenues — including filing a lawsuit — to stop the federal government from sending
At first, Francis Ari Sture thought a human was trying to shove him down the steep Norwegian mountainside. Then he saw the golden eagle land. “We are staring at each other for, maybe, a whole minute,” Sture said on Monday. “I’m trying to think what’s in its mind.” The bird then attacked Sture five more times on Thursday last week, scratching and clawing the 31-year-old bicycle courier’s face and arms over 10 to 15 minutes as he sprinted down the mountain. The same eagle is believed to be responsible for attacks on three other people across a vast mountainous area of southern Norway
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
RSS