Suicide car bomber kills 8 in Pakistan
A suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into a police outpost yesterday, killing eight people in an area where the military has been battling Islamic militants loyal to a fugitive cleric, an official said.
Five civilians including two children and three policemen died in the attack at the Nimgole post, the headquarters of pro-Taliban cleric Maulana Fazlullah, said chief military spokesman Maj. Gen. Arshad Waheed. Several others were wounded.
The outpost is near Imam Dheri, the headquarters of pro-Taliban cleric Maulana Fazlullah that troops captured Thursday.
"There's nothing we could say about the perpetrators before investigating, but involvement by remnants of Fazlullah's militants can't be ruled out," said Amjad Iqbal, a spokesman for the Swat military command center.
The attack occurred a day after the commander of military operations in Swat said insurgents in the area were on the run but remained dangerous.
Security forces have been the target of a series of suicide attacks this year.
Waheed said militants were trying to strike back while on the run.
"Suicide attacks are something that is hard to avoid, but security forces in Swat are in control of the region," Waheed said.
Militants seized tracts of the Swat valley, a former tourist destination 100 miles from Islamabad, this summer, raising concern about the spread of Islamic militancy from the Pakistan-Afghan border.
Followers of Fazlullah had fended off security forces sent to reinforce the area's beleaguered police since July, but have been scattered by a major army operation launched last month.
Maj Gen Nasser Janjua said Saturday his 20,000-strong force has retaken all the towns seized by the militants, killing 290 of them and capturing 140, while driving a hard-core group of some 400-500 into the Piochar side valley.
Three bullet-riddled bodies were found in the Samgota area, some 22 miles northwest of Mingora, the main town in Swat. "Evidence found at the scene suggested the dead men were local militants apparently killed by the local residents of the area," Iqbal said.
Separately, suspected militants fired rockets at an air force base in the northwest city of Peshawar early Sunday and bombed a girls' school, but there were no casualties, police said.
Two rockets landed in a field at the base while a third exploded on a road near the area after midnight, senior police official Mohammad Tahir Khan told AFP.
Part of the base is used for domestic and international passenger flights, with Peshawar the provincial capital of North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan.
Suspected militants also hit a girls' high school in Peshawar, causing some structural damage, another police official said.
Peshawar is located close to Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal zones where government forces are battling pro-Taliban and al-Qaeda linked militants.
Last month the militants attacked the Pakistan army in Swat valley, where officials claim Saturday that they had almost cleared the area after killing 290 rebels and arresting another 143 in recent weeks.
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