Pakistan Conflict Monitor

Fatal Market Blast in Khyber

Pakistan Market Bomb Kills 10, AFP, 16 July 2010

EXCERPT: "A bomb blast ripped through a busy car market in Pakistan's infamous tribal district of Khyber on Friday, killing 10 civilians including children, officials said. The explosion rocked Kuki Khel town in Khyber, on the NATO supply route into Afghanistan and part of Pakistan's tribal belt that Washington considers an Al-Qaeda headquarters and the most dangerous region on Earth. 'Ten people have been killed, there were three children among the dead. Fourteen people were wounded in the blast,' Khyber district senior official Shafeerullah Khan told AFP. The timed device was planted in a ditch in a crowded market where people buy and sell second-hand cars, he said. Two intelligence officials also confirmed the death toll saying three shops and four cars were destroyed. Officials described the area as a stronghold of Lashkar-e-Islam, a homegrown militant group that has carried out Islamist vigilante-style campaigns, kidnappings, shootings and attacks in Khyber."

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Related articles:
Bomb at used car market in Khyber, Pakistan, kills six, BBC News, 16 July 2010
Bombing in Pakistan market kills eight, The Hindu, 16 July 2010
Taliban dynamite two "spies" in Pakistan [North Waziristan], AFP, 17 July 2010

Related posts:
Suicide blast kills 5 in Swat, 15 July 2010
Suicide bombers strike govt office, kill dozens in NW, 9 July 2010
Twin bombings kill dozens, 18 February 2010
Suicide bombings kill policemen, civilians in Khyber, 10 February 2010
Khyber agency military offensive advances, 1 December 2009

Military Launches Additional Operations in FATA, NWFP

Military Operation Launched in Khyber Agency, DAWN, 26 April 2010

EXCERPT: "Security forces launched an operation to root out militants from the Bara Tehsil of the Khyber Agency on Monday. Officials said that so far, 12 suspected militants had been taken into custody. According to Frontier Corps officials, a curfew had been imposed in Akakhel and other areas of the upper Khyber Agency. They add that the 12 militants who were detained had been shifted to an unknown location for interrogation. [...] Locals said that a mass migration of people moving out of the area is likely to begin."

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People Asked to Vacate Village Ahead of Army Operation, DAWN, 26 April 2010

EXCERPT: "People of the village of Tootkas, said to be a hub of militants in Hangu district, were asked to leave the area by Monday because a military operation was to be launched there. Security forces decided to get the area vacated after local people expressed their inability to form a lashkar against militants hiding in their area. Earlier, the villagers had been given a three-day deadline which was later extended till Monday. Officials said that Tootkas in Thall tehsil had become a stronghold of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan and there had been an increase in bomb attacks on security convoys waged from there over a few months."

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Related stories:
Gunmen abduct five tribal elders in Bajaur, one killed, Daily Times, 27 April 2010
25 terrorists arrested in Bara operation, Daily Times, 27 April 2010
Key militant commander among six killed in Swat, DAWN, 27 April 2010
TTP member held for beheading in Karachi, China View, 26 April 2010
Minor dies, two hurt, as forces open fire on wedding party, The News International, 26 April 2010

Related reports:
Armed militant groups based in Pakistani border areas [pdf], UK House of Commons Library, 18 March 2010

Related posts:
Khyber air raid kills civilians, 12 April 2010
More than 200,000 flee violence in tribal regions, 9 April 2010
Deadly clashes continue in FATA as Taliban launch attacks,31 March 2010
12 civilians killed as suicide bomber targets Shiites, 5 March 2010
Khyber agency military offensive advances, 1 December 2009

Khyber Air Raid Kills Civilians

60 Civilians Killed in Tirah Bombing, The News International, 11 April 2010

EXCERPT: "Sixty civilians were killed and as many sustained injuries when fighter jets bombed Sra Vella in Jamrud Tehsil’s Tirah Valley in Khyber Agency on Saturday, local sources said. However, official sources claimed 35 militants were killed when jets hit their hideouts in the valley. The injured were shifted to hospitals in Jamrud and Peshawar through the difficult hilly areas and most of them succumbed to their injuries on the way, the sources said. Tribal sources said two fighter jets dropped heavy bombs on the house of Hameed Gul in the Sra Vella area in Tirah Valley around 10:00am. As a result, the house was turned into rubble and three children and two women were killed. 'After 10 minutes of the bombardment when the villagers and labourers working on nearby water channel approached the house to retrieve the bodies, the fighter jets again bombed the house killing and injuring more than 150 people,' Sadiq Khan, an injured and eyewitness, told this scribe in the Civil Hospital Jamrud. He said all those killed and injured, including women, in the bombardment were from Kokikhel, a sub-tribe of Afridis and were innocent people having no links with the militants."

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Related articles:
Airstrikes victims laid to rest in Khyber Agency, The News International, 12 April 2010
"Scores dead" in Pakistan air raids, Al Jazeera, 11 April 2010
Air strikes kill 100 in Khyber and Orakzai, DAWN, 11 April 2010
Pakistani jets kill 45 people in Khyber: Militants, Reuters, 10 April 2010

Related posts:
Troops repel another attack on checkpost in Orakzai, 9 April 2010
More than 200,000 flee violence in tribal regions, 9 April 2010
Military takes counter-insurgency approach in Orakzai, 6 April 2010
Taliban attack triggers fierce fighting, raises doubts about group's weakened state, 26 March 2010
At least 30 Taliban killed as military repels attack on security post, 4 March 2010
Air strike kills 30 militants in NW, 22 February 2010

Deadly Clashes Continue in FATA as Taliban Launch Attacks

Raids Kill Six Soldiers, Dozens of Militants, DAWN, 31 March 2010

EXCERPT: "Fighting in the mountains killed dozens of militants and six Pakistani soldiers on Wednesday as violence swept the northwest tribal belt bordering Afghanistan. In the Khyber tribal district that straddles Nato supply lines, Pakistan's military said 80 to 100 militants armed with guns, rockets and suicide vehicles attacked a paramilitary camp, sparking clashes that killed six soldiers. Troops said they repelled the militants from storming the Frontier Corps camp in the district. Around 100 militants launched the attack on the camp in Jansi, near Bara town, at around 2:00 am, said local administration chief Shafirullah Wazir. 'Security forces effectively responded and repulsed the attack. During an exchange of fire with security forces about 20 terrorists were killed and more than 30 were injured,' the military said."

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Related articles:
Pakistan clash kills six soldiers, 20 militants, VOA News, 31 March 2010
Airstrikes kill 35 Taliban in Orakzai agency, The News International, 31 March 2010
US missiles kill six militants in Pakistan: Officials, AFP, 31 March 2010

Related posts:
Air force doctrine changed to tackle militancy, 29 March 2010
Taliban attack triggers fierce fighting, raises doubts about group's weakened state, 26 March 2010
Govt plots new military operations in NW, 10 March 2010
Air strike kills 30 militants in NW, 22 February 2010
Militants regroup in northwest, army responds, 27 November 2009

Army Captures Key Militant Hideout

Pakistan Says Army Seized Taliban, Al-Qaeda Base, AFP, 2 March 2010

EXCERPT: "Pakistan's army on Tuesday revealed a vast Taliban and Al-Qaeda hideout dug into mountains near the Afghan border and captured in an offensive that killed 75 local and foreign militants. Commanders gave journalists a guided tour of the bastion, carved into sheer rock within clear view of the snow-capped mountains of eastern Afghanistan and said by one general to comprise 156 caves developed over five to seven years. Pakistan seized the complex in its latest offensive against militants in its semi-autonomous tribal belt, following US pressure on the country to eliminate Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked groups who attack Western troops in Afghanistan. Major General Tariq Khan told journalists on the visit that the warren of caves in the Damadola area had served as a militant headquarters until it was overrun by troops in an offensive launched in January. 'There were Egyptians, Uzbeks, Chechens and Afghans killed in the operation,' he said."

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Related articles:
Pakistan secures Taliban hub; militiamen dance, AlertNet, 2 March 2010
Militant operation imminent in Orakzai, Tirah, DAWN, 2 March 2010
Seven militants killed in fresh Khyber clashes, DAWN, 2 March 2010

Related reports:
Al-Qaeda's safe havens, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 1 March 2010

Related posts:
Bajaur Agency: The new landscape of insurgency in FATA, 15 February 2010
Military captures Taliban stronghold on Afghan border, 8 February 2010
Northwest turns volatile following suicide attack, Bajaur offensive, 1 February
Rift among Bajaur Taliban widens as casualties mount, 29 January 2010
Countering militancy in FATA, 26 October 2009

Twin Bombings Kill Dozens

Pakistan Militant Group Attacked by Suicide Bomber, BBC News, 18 February 2010

EXCERPT: "At least 15 people have been killed and more than 100 injured in a suicide bomb attack on a militant gathering in north-western Pakistan, officials say. The bomber had blown himself up among pro-Taliban militants meeting in a compound by a crowded market selling hashish, a witness told the BBC. Customers at the market were among those killed and injured in the blast. It happened in the Khyber tribal region close to the Afghan border, where the Taliban have a strong presence.  Over the past year north-west Pakistan has been hit by numerous attacks. The army recently finished an offensive in the area against the Taliban. According to a witness, the bomber walked in among militants attending a lecture session of the pro-Taliban Lashkar-e-Islam group at their compound in the Tirah valley and blew himself up."

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Related articles:
41 killed in Pak twin blasts, Times of India, 18 February 2010
Bomb at Pakistan mosque kills dozens, The New York Times, 18 February 2010
Bomb blast kills at least 11 in Orakzai, DAWN, 18 February 2010

Related reports:
Al-Qaeda ideologue rules on permissibility of mass-casualty market bombings, The Jamestown Foundation // Terrorism Monitor, 12 February 2010

Related posts:
Curbing suicide terrorism requires enhanced strategies, 16 February 2010
Suicide bombing kills policemen, civilians in Khyber agency, 10 February 2010
Record number of deaths due to militant violence: Report, 11 January 2010
Khyber agency military offensive advances, 1 December 2009
Operation "I will see you" launched on Afghan border, 24 November 2009

Suicide Bombing Kills Policemen, Civilians in Khyber Agency

Pakistan Blast Kills Policemen, Civilians, CBS News, 10 February 2010

EXCERPT: "In a sign of the continued militant threat, a suicide bomber attacked a vehicle carrying tribal police near Pakistan's volatile border with Afghanistan, killing 17 people, including 10 policemen, said a local government official. The attack came on the day the country's top civilian security official told the Associated Press that Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud had indeed died of wounds from a drone missile attack last month. It was the government's first categorical confirmation of the death of the feared militant, whose passing is likely to weaken, but not vanquish, the al Qaeda-linked insurgent network he led. The suicide bomber who attacked police in Pakistan's Khyber tribal area Wednesday was able to get inside their vehicle before detonating his explosives, said local tribesman Izzakhana Afridi, who witnessed the bombing. 'I saw him running and jumping into the Khasadar vehicle and then an explosion pushed me down to the ground some 50 yards away,' said Afridi, using the official name of the tribal police. Rasheed Khan, a local government official, said the blast killed 10 policemen, six civilians and one paramilitary officer. Police official Ibrahim Khan, who survived the explosion because he was outside the vehicle, said the blast also injured about a dozen other civilians."

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Related articles:
Explosion targets military convoy in Pakistan, 3 personnel killed, Kuwait News Agency, 10 February 2010
Army brigadier killed in helicopter rescue operation, DAWN, 10 February 2010
Militants blow up boys' school in Khyber Agency, DAWN, 18 January 2010
TTP names new head for Khyber Agency, The News International, 10 November 2009

Related reports:
Local militants struggle with Taliban government for control of Pakistan’s Khyber Agency, The Jamestown Foundation // Terrorism Monitor, 6 August 2009

Related posts:
Khyber agency military offensive advances, 1 December 2009
Militants regroup in northwest, army responds, 27 November 2009
Operation "I will see you" launched on Afghan border, 24 November 2009
Army expands operations, battles militants in northwest, 23 November 2009

Khyber Agency Military Offensive Advances

'Troops Kill 61 Militants in Khyber Agency', Daily Times, 1 December 2009

EXCERPT: "Security forces killed 61 terrorists and arrested 85 during the ongoing Khwakh Bad-e-Shum operation, security officials said on Monday. Briefing reporters at the Bara Fort, operation in-charge Brigadier Fayyaz Khan said 25 vehicles were also destroyed during the operation. Brigadier Khan said the security forces had captured several important areas and hideouts in Tirah valley and had also destroyed several terrorist centres. He said the security forces also recovered tunnels in Bara, where the terrorists used to keep abducted people. Brigadier Khan said the security forces were advancing towards Gurgury and Shin Qamar areas, believed to be the strongholds of banned militant organisation, the Lashkar-e-Islam (LI). Meanwhile, a statement by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said two security forces personnel were injured in clearing operations in South Waziristan during Operation Rah-e-Nijat. It said one terrorist was arrested in Tank, while 10 suspected terrorists were arrested during Operation Rah-e-Rast in Swat and Malakand in the last 24 hours. The ISPR said the security forces carried out clearing operation in Kulal Raghzai in South Waziristan and consolidated positions in the Jandola sector."

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Related articles:
Pakistani military says Khyber operation successful [blog], The Long War Journal, 30 November 2009
Pakistani forces making "good progress" in Khyber Pass offensive, American Forces Press Service, 1 January 2009
Pakistan signs peace agreement with extremists in Khyber [blog], The Long War Journal, 9 July 2008

Related posts:
Militants regroup in northwest, army responds, 27 November 2009
Army expands operations, battles militants in northwest, 23 November 2009
Operation "I will see you" launched on Afghan border, 24 November 2009