Time to take out this rat nest. Those attacking our soldiers should be killed mercilessly and the whole area should be carpet bomb to kill these terrorists rats.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/07/15/asia/AS-GEN-Pakistan-Radical-Mosque.php
Insurgents make another attack as troops deploy in northwest Pakistan amid calls for holy war
The Associated Press
Published: July 14, 2007
PESHAWAR, Pakistan: A bomb attack against a military convoy in northwestern Pakistan killed more than 10 troops Sunday in an intensifying militant campaign of violence against the government in the restive border region, officials said.
The latest incident, either a suicide attack or a roadside bomb blast, followed the deaths of 24 soldiers in a suicide strike against another convoy in the northwest Saturday.
The government has deployed thousands of troops to the region to thwart calls by extremists for a holy war to avenge the bloody storming of Islamabad’s Red Mosque last week.
The convoy of army and paramilitary troops was attacked in Swat, a mountainous area of North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan, said police officer Humayun Khan.
Troops opened fire after the attack and a gun battle was continuing, he said.
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Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad in Islamabad could not confirm a suicide bomber was involved, saying the convoy may have been struck by a roadside bomb.
He said about 40 persons were wounded but could not confirm Khan’s toll of more than 10 dead.
On Saturday, at least 24 soldiers were killed and 29 wounded on a road near Daznaray, a village about 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Miran Shah, the main town in the North Waziristan tribal region, Arshad said.
The driver plowed his explosives-laden vehicle into the convoy in one of the most lethal suicide attacks in recent months.
Although no one claimed responsibility for that attack, Arshad said it could be a response to an army raid on the Red Mosque on Wednesday.
Tensions are high in Pakistan after the raid, which ended an eight-day siege with a hard-line cleric and his militant supporters. More than 100 died during the stand off.
Elsewhere in the northwest Saturday, suspected militants detonated a bomb that struck a vehicle carrying soldiers in the town of Bannu, wounding two, police said.
In the northwest’s largest city, Peshawar, a bomb was found in a car parked in front of a military-affiliated bank.
The region along Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan has seen increased activity by local militants, the Taliban, and — according to a recent U.S. assessment — al-Qaida.
With Sunday’s attack in Swat, at least 63 people have been killed in bombings and shootings in the northwest since the Red Mosque crisis began July 3.
Arshad said reinforcements had been sent to the northwest to beef up some 90,000 troops already in the region. Officials say the fresh troops have moved into at least five areas.
“With help from local tribal elders, we are trying to ensure that militants lay down their arms and stop issuing calls for jihad against the government,” a senior military official said on condition of anonymity, because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
He said there were no immediate plans for combat operations against radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah, who has pressed for Taliban-style rule in Pakistan — much like the leaders of the Red Mosque.
Fazlullah told supporters to prepare for jihad, or holy war, against President Gen. Pervez Musharaff in revenge for the mosque assault, the official said.
