The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, led by Hakimullah Mehsud, has intensified its assaults on Pakistani security forces in South Waziristan.
Calling it the "mother of all operations", Pakistan has started a massive offensive against militants in the restive South Waziristan Agency (SWA). Named operation Rah-e-Najaat (The Path to Salvation), the initiative started last Saturday -- plans to flush out Hakimullah Mehsud led Tehrik Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The dreaded outfit, on its part, has claimed that it will fight "till the last drop of their blood".
Officials were quoted by TV news channels as saying that the drone fired one missile at the militant training centre located near Makeen in South Waziristan Agency, a stronghold of the militant commander Mehsud.
At least 8 people died and over 20 injured in the latest round of bomb attacks in northwest Pakistan, as a US drone strike killed 5 suspected militants in South Waziristan tribal region, considered a stronghold of Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud.
Pakistani forces were close to overrunning all three Taliban strongholds in South Waziristan as they killed 18 terrorists in fierce fresh battles in the lawless region and adjoining areas over the last 24 hours.
The Pakistani Taliban on Tuesday threatened they would launch a guerrilla war once security forces entered the whole of the South Waziristan tribal region, where a military operation is currently underway.
Members of the banned Jaish-e-Mohammed and militants from South Waziristan tribal region are fighting alongside some 5,000 Taliban fighters in Pakistan's restive Swat valley, chief military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said on Friday.
The drone fired three missiles at Karikot village in South Waziristan, official sources were quoted as saying by TV channels.
The army carried out this operation in the South Waziristan tribal region after reports that 25 to 30 Al Qaeda men were hiding there.
At least five security personnel were killed and 10 injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up near an army vehicle outside a Pakistan army camp in the troubled South Waziristan region on Thursday. The suicide attacker detonated his explosives just as the vehicle was leaving the army camp in Wana, the headquarters of South Waziristan, at 2.30 pm. Observers said the attack could have been carried out by pro-Taliban militants in retaliation for a missile strike.
The missile hit a madrassa in the Azam Warsak area of South Waziristan at 2 am when the seminary's students were asleep, local residents said. TV channels reported that 11 others were injured in the attack.
Managing the senior generals has proven to be quite a headache for General Asim Munir, even as he and his team of loyal henchmen labour hard to dispel the sense of unhappiness among the public about the army's overbearing presence and interference in matters 'civilian', notes Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at RA&W.
The United States has slapped sanctions on Pakistan-based terrorist leader Bahawal Khan for being involved in terrorist attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told the Pashto-language Khyber Television channel that the bodies of the slain Frontier Constabulary personnel had been dumped at Spin Tul, an area near North Waziristan Agency.
The unsolved mystery about the June 3, 2011 killing of Al Qaeda linked Pakistani jehadi leader and the chief of the pro-Kashmir Harkatul Jehadul Islami, Commander Ilyas Kashmiri, in a United States drone attack in South Waziristan Agency, has been deepened further amid Pakistani media reports that he was spotted in North Waziristan recently, reports Amir Mir
Harkatul Jihad al-Islami chief Ilyas Kashmiri, who was killed in a United States drone attack in Pakistan's South Waziristan region, had reportedly convened a meeting in North Waziristan last month to constitute a special squad that would be tasked with avenging the death of Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.
Pakistani troops on Sunday captured a strategic mountaintop and pushed deeper into Taliban-held territory after consolidating their hold on areas around the hometown of Hakimullah Mehsud in Waziristan, where 15 rebels and a soldier were killed in fresh fighting.
The chief of Al Qaeda's global operations, wanted by the United State over a 2009 plot to attack the New York subway system, was killed in a raid in Pakistan's restive tribal region, the country's military said.
Is the mystery over Ilyas Kashmiri's death finally solved? Days after the Pakistani media reported that the HuJI chief was spotted in North Waziristan the Al Qaeda in a rare statement has declared him a martyr.
Pakistani security forces have killed over 30 militants in fresh fighting in Swat and the Waziristan tribal region, where the security forces carried out retaliatory air strikes after the Taliban launched attacks on several military bases.
At least fifteen people, including three children, were killed and several others injured in two missile strikes carried out by suspected US drones in Pakistan's troubled North and South Waziristan tribal regions on Friday.
According to the Inter-Services Public Relations, the media wing of the army, the terrorists attacked the security post in Dera Ismail Khan's Daraban area bordering the South Waziristan tribal district in the early morning hours.
Two commandos of the special forces were also killed in the rescue operation that was launched after negotiations between the government and the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan militants to end the hostage crisis failed.
Pakistan believes Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, who has a $5 million U.S. bounty on his head, was probably killed with his wife and bodyguards in a missile attack two days ago. According to intelligence officer in South Waziristan Mehsud's funeral had already taken place, while Pakistani media cited their own security sources saying Mehsud was dead.
Hundreds of supporters of cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan on Saturday set off on a motorcade "peace march" to the terrorists-riddled South Waziristan to protest US drone strikes in the tribal belt.
Sixteen pro-Taliban militants were killed in clashes with security forces in Pakistan's restive tribal belt even as the country's north-west witnessed a string of violent incidents on Sunday. Troops killed seven militants and injured over a dozen more during an operation in Azam Warsak area of South Waziristan Agency, TV news channels quoted officials as saying.
The United States has started the New Year with successful drone strikes in the tribal areas of Pakistan that have so far resulted in the killing of five leading terrorist commanders -- both from 'good Taliban' and 'bad Taliban'. Tahir Ali reports.
A top Taliban commander was among the five people killed on Friday in a powerful blast in a market in Pakistan's restive South Waziristan tribal region.
Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has categorically denied any decision of removing Hakimullah Mehsud from his position as the head of the group.
Several Pakistani security personnel were reportedly kidnapped by Taliban militants, who launched a pre-dawn attack on a security check post-near the Pakistani tribal region killing one personnel, local media reported. Two security personnel were also injured in the attack in Tank district in Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa province, TV channels reported. Express TV reported that the militants attacked a check-post of Frontier Corps at a remote Mulzai area.
Heavily-armed Taliban militants attacked a check post in Pakistan's lawless tribal belt killing at least nine soldiers and losing 10 of their own men, security officials said today
At least 30 terrorists were killed on Tuesday when Pakistani fighter jets carried out air strikes on militant hideouts in Shawal valley, a mountainous area in North Waziristan sharing boundary with South Waziristan, and other areas of the restive northwest tribal region.
Islamabad has always protested against the drone strikes by the US administration but America has not paid any heed to its demands, says Tahir Ali
Pakistan apparently aided the killing of the dreaded Al Qaeda-linked terrorist Ilyas Kashmiri, who had come to figure as the most wanted militant for the security establishment.
A Pakistani marine commando posted at the PNS Mehran naval airbase, which was attacked by terrorists on Sunday, was arrested in January for his links with militants. The marine commando had warned about an impending attack.
A march against US drone strikes in Pakistan led by cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan was stopped by the army on the edge of the nation's lawless tribal belt due to fears of possible militant attacks on the rallyists, which also included American anti-war activists.
Notwithstanding Taliban's insistence that militant commander Ilyas Kashmiri is dead, senior Pakistani military authorities in South Waziristan tribal region are still reluctant to confirm that he was killed in a US drone strike over a year ago.
A day after a top paramilitary officer described the situation in Karachi as worse than terrorism-hit South Waziristan, Pakistan Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Choudhry on Thursday warned that such situations lead to military takeovers.
The Pakistani Taliban have threatened to contaminate water sources and reservoirs with poisonous materials to pressure the army to stop military operations against them in South Waziristan tribal region. The cantonment boards of Rawalpindi and Chaklala, located near the federal capital, received the threat from the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.
Pakistan will soon discuss the issue of India's alleged involvement in terror activities inside its geographical boundaries with New Delhi, Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit has said.Reiterating that the security forces have recovered Indian arms and ammunitions during search operations in South Waziristan, where the military is engaged in an intense battle with the Taliban, Basit blamed India for not taking Islamabad's commitments against terrorism seriously.
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