Digest
Digest
|
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
PAKISTAN
Taliban strongholds attacked, army says
Pakistani soldiers closed in on two major Taliban strongholds in South Waziristan on Saturday, officials said, as government jets pounded insurgent hideouts elsewhere in the northwest, and the prime minister said the country had no choice but to defeat the militants.
"We are at war," Yousaf Raza Gillani said at a news conference in the northwestern city of Peshawar, where a car bombing last week killed more than 115 people. "Our civil leadership, our military leadership and political leadership . . . we are on the same page: that we have to fight the militancy. We do not have any other option because their intentions are to take over" the country.
Two weeks ago, the government launched the offensive in the South Waziristan tribal region, viewed as the main stronghold of the Taliban and al-Qaeda along the Afghan border. The offensive has led to retaliatory militant attacks across Pakistan.
On Saturday, seven paramilitary soldiers driving through the Khyber tribal area were killed in a roadside bombing carried out by suspected Taliban militants, a local official said. The famed Khyber Pass is the main route for ferrying supplies to U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
That attack came as Pakistani jets bombed three hideouts of Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud in the Orakzai tribal region, killing at least eight militants and wounding several others, intelligence officials said. Another airstrike killed seven militants in the Kurram tribal region, the officials said.
The veracity of the reports could not be confirmed.
-- Associated Press
RUSSIA
11 killed in violence in North Caucasus
Ten suspected militants and a police officer have been killed in the volatile southern provinces of Dagestan and Chechnya in three incidents, officials said.
