ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's chief army spokesman says a suicide bomber rammed his vehicle into a group of paramilitary officers near the Afghan border, killing at least eight troops in the volatile region. The attack on Sunday occurred near Wana, the main town in South Waziristan, a tribal area considered a haven for al-Qaida and Taliban-linked militants. Pakistan has deployed security forces throughout its northwest to tamp down growing militancy. The troops have been frequent targets of attacks. Army spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas says the latest attack occurred at a checkpoint near the main gate of the Zalai Fort, where members of the Frontier Corps were gathered.
BAGHDAD: Nearly 500 U.S. Army combat engineers who specialize in clearing roads of explosives started shifting to southern Afghanistan."We are probably going to be the beginning of the influx you are going to see to Afghanistan," Lt. Col. Kevin Landers, commander of the Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Engineer Battalion, said as crews packed crates and cleaned vehicles for the flight to Kandahar.Obama has ordered 17,000 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 American troops already battling the resurgent Taliban."We are going to take this footprint out of Iraq," said Landers, whose battalion received word of its reassignment last month just after taking command of clearing roads in Baghdad of bombs and debris.
Comments