Restive tribal belt: Bomb attack on security convoy kills 2 soldiers

Seven troops also wounded in attack in North Waziristan; 3 tribesmen die in Khyber Agency blast.

DERA ISMAIL KHAN/ BARA: Two security personnel were killed and seven were wounded in a roadside bomb attack on a military convoy in the volatile North Waziristan tribal region on Sunday.

Taliban militants set off a roadside remote-controlled device at 7.30am when a security convoy drove past in Mir Ali area, some 35 kilometres east of Miramshah, the main town in North Waziristan, a security official told The Express Tribune.

“The explosion killed at least two soldiers and injured seven others,” the official added. The casualties were airlifted to a military hospital in the nearby Bannu town.

Another security official confirmed the attack to AFP and said two of some 10 to 15 vehicles in the convoy were severely damaged. According to witnesses, the targeted vehicle burnt for a long time.

A spokesperson for the Jandolla Group of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack. “It was a revenge for the killing of Ahmad Khan Bengali,” the spokesperson, Ahmadullah Ahmad Marwat told journalists in a phone call from an undisclosed location.

Bengali, a Jandolla Group fighter, was killed in a US drone strike in Mir Ali a few days back.

Bara explosions

Over in Khyber Agency, three tribesmen were killed and as many children were wounded in two separate incidents.

The three tribesmen were transporting household items on donkeys to Ziauddin village in the Zakha Khel area of Bara sub-division when they hit a bomb planted by a roadside, an official of the political administration told The Express Tribune. All three tribesmen and their animals were killed on the spot, the official said.

The official identified the dead tribesmen as Jehanzeb, Shenai and Saifur Rahman. The tribesmen had stopped for evening prayers when one of donkeys hit the bomb with its hoof triggering the explosion.

Children wounded

In a separate incident, three children were injured when a stray mortar shell slammed into a house in the Sipah area of Bara sub-division. The children were identified as Ismail, 8, Shams, 7, and six-year-old girl Hazrat Siyah. The injured children were rushed to a hospital in Peshawar.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 19^th, 2012.