Monday, October 12, 2009

Many dead in Pakistan market blast

Maybe this will motivate the Pakistani military enough to get off their ass's and go after the Taliban ?

Al Jazeera
At least 30 people have been killed and dozens more wounded in a suicide bombing in a crowded marketplace in northwestern Pakistan, officials say.

The blast occurred on Monday in Shangla district near Swat, a district in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) that was the scene of fierce fighting between pro-Taliban fighters and the military earlier this year.

The explosion came the morning after Pakistani fighter jets attacked suspected Taliban fighters in South Waziristan near the Afghan border, in advance of an imminent ground assault.

On Sunday, the Pakistan army sent in commandos to storm an office building and rescue dozens of its own security officials taken captive after a Taliban attack on the general army headquarters in Rawalpindi.

Azam Tariq, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for that attack, saying "it was carried out by our Punjab unit".

The Pakistani airforce was quick to respond with bombings in South Waziristan.

"The jets hit and destroyed two of their hideouts in Makeen and Ladha and we have a total of about 16 militants killed," a unnamed Pakistani intelligence official told Reuters news agency.

But the military has been conducting air and artillery strikes in South Waziristan for months, while moving troops, blockading the region and trying to split armed opposition to Islamabad's authority.
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