Wednesday, July 4, 2007

Nine Killed in Suicide Attack on Pakistani Soldiers

Via Yahoo! News -

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A suicide bomber rammed his vehicle into a military convoy in the northwestern Pakistani town of Bannu on Wednesday, killing himself along with six soldiers and two children, military and intelligence officials said.

The convoy was travelling from North Waziristan's tribal region to Bannu in North West Frontier Province when it was attacked near the Gurbaz area, the officials said.

"Four soldiers and a child were killed on the spot in the attack," an intelligence official told Reuters.

Two more soldier and a child succumbed to their wounds later in a hospital, the official said.

Suicide attacks on the military have become more frequent because of Pakistan's help to Western forces fighting a Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.

It was unknown whether the attack was related to clashes between security forces and militant Islamic students at a radical mosque in Islamabad. Eleven people were killed in shooting at Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, on Tuesday.

Clerics heading Lal Masjid had threatened to retaliate with suicide bombings in the past, if force were used against their Taliban style movement, and many of their followers come from frontier towns like Bannu.

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