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| Blast hits Pakistan army convoy, 18 soldiers dead | | | Pakistan | Oct 25
A suspected roadside bomb attack killed 18 soldiers and wounded 25 on Thursday in a northwest Pakistan region where a Taliban-style movement has taken root and the military has boosted its presence, officials said.
The blast in the Swat valley set fire to a truck loaded with ammunition and came a day after the military sent around 2,000 troops to the district in response to growing militant activity.
"There are 18 dead. The bodies are badly burnt," said a security official.
State television reported a firefight broke out after the blast, the latest in a series of attacks on security forces in recent months which have killed hundreds of people.
"When we reached near the truck it was burning. Flames were rising high into sky. Ammunition was exploding. Police stopped us going near the truck," local resident Saeed Khan said at the site of the blast.
Police said the explosion was caused by a roadside bomb, but security and government officials said the cause was still being investigated.
"Initial information suggests the blast was caused by an improvised explosive device, but we are investigating," said Arshad Majeed, a senior government official.
Swat has seen a surge in militant activities since Maulana Fazlullah, a pro-Taliban cleric, reportedly launched an illegal FM radio calling people to jihad or Muslim holy war.
Fazlullah is de facto head of Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM) or Movement for the Implementation of Mohammad's Sharia Law, a pro-Taliban group banned by U.S. ally President General Pervez Musharraf in January 2002.
Militants have attacked security forces and carried out bomb attacks in recent months in the scenic valley in North West Frontier Province, and have been forcing residents there to follow a strict Islamic code.
Pakistani tribal areas have been a hotbed of support for al Qaeda and Taliban militants who have fled Afghanistan. Thousands of soldiers and militants have been killed in battles in these regions.
Violence has escalated across Pakistan since July, when militants scrapped a peace deal and the army raided a radical mosque in the capital, Islamabad.
Officials suspect Islamist militants were behind the worst blast in Pakistan's 60 years of history, when at least 139 people were killed in a suicide attack on a procession led by former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in Karachi last week on her return from eight years of self-imposed exile. |
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