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Terrorists kill 28 people in two separate attacks in Pakistan

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Two separate terrorist attacks on an army base and a health center in northwest Pakistan killed 28 people, including ten soldiers as well as female health workers and children, the military said on Tuesday.

The attacks both occurred on Monday and coincide with a resurgence of Islamist terrorism in the northwestern border region with Afghanistan, where the government launched a counterinsurgency operation last month.

In the first incident, Islamist terrorists attacked a military base in northwest Pakistan, killing eight security personnel, the military said on Tuesday, after a suicide bomber rammed a vehicle loaded with explosives into a perimeter wall.

Terrorists targeted the base in Bannu on the border with the North Waziristan tribal area, which is considered a hotbed of Islamist terrorism and is close to the border with Afghanistan. Security forces killed all 10 attackers involved, the military said in a statement.

“This timely and effective response … prevented a larger disaster and saved precious innocent lives,” the statement continued.

Soldiers drive from Bannu to North Waziristan, June 20, 2014. (Source: REUTERS/Ihsan Khattak)

Among those killed in Monday’s attack were seven army soldiers and one paramilitary soldier.

Historically used as a launching pad for anti-terrorist operations

The British colonial-era military base has served as a launching pad for anti-terror operations in the past and is surrounded by civilian homes that were rocked by Monday’s loud explosion, two local officials told Reuters.

They said the first explosion was intended to tear down the perimeter wall and allow other terrorists to enter the base.

The Hafiz Gul Bahadur group, which according to military sources operates from neighboring Afghanistan to “orchestrate terrorist attacks in Pakistan,” claimed responsibility for the attack.

A spokesman for the Afghan Taliban government did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Islamabad says it has repeatedly discussed the issue of cross-border attacks with the Taliban government, but the government denies allowing Afghan territory to be used for attacks.

The incident has sparked clashes between the two countries’ border troops. The terrorist group involved in the latest attack was the same one that targeted Pakistan in a rare cross-border operation.

“The Pakistani armed forces will … take all necessary measures they deem appropriate against the threats emanating from Afghanistan,” the military said on Tuesday.

In a second, separate attack late Monday night, five civilians, including two health workers and two children, were killed in an attack on a health facility in Dera Ismail Khan district. Subsequent clashes killed two soldiers and all three terrorists, the military said.

So far, no group has claimed responsibility for the second attack.



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