Restive North Waziristan: Two killed as security convoy hits roadside bomb

10 troops also wounded in the attack in Shewa Tehsil.

MIRAMSHAH:

An improvised explosive device (IED) targeting a military convoy killed two soldiers and wounded 11 others on Wednesday in North Waziristan Agency.

According to a security official, a Frontier Corps (FC) convoy was travelling to Thall district from the Shewa tehsil of North Waziristan around noon when militants set off a roadside bomb.

Troops responded by launching a house-to-house search for militants while military helicopters shelled suspected hideouts, another official in Peshawar told AFP. “We don’t have details of militant losses,” he said. An official told The Express Tribune that the injured were rushed to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in Thall.

“A helicopter was airborne for aerial surveillance,” he said, adding that no one was arrested in the search operation yet.

“It was a remote-controlled device and the target was a military convoy,” another security official in Miramshah told AFP.

One vehicle in the 20-truck convoy was hit in the blast, which killed one soldier on the spot, while another later succumbed to injuries in hospital, he added. Earlier this month, two security personnel travelling in the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) vehicle near Miramshah, headquarters of North Waziristan Agency, were injured when an IED detonated near them.

As many as 11 IED blasts have been reported so far in Fata during the month of September in which two blasts were reported in North Waziristan, one in Orakzai and the rest eight in Khyber Agency. However, the exact number of casualties and injuries could not be ascertained.

After the military operation in Fata most of the banned outfits have changed their surgical tactics and are using IEDs to target security forces’ convoys in areas including Khyber, North Waziristan, and Orakzai Agency. (WITH ADDITIONAL INPUT FROM AFP)

Published in The Express Tribune, September 27^th, 2012.