Militants From Afghanistan Attack Pakistani Posts

[alp227]

Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - Several hundred militants from Afghanistan launched a pre-dawn cross-border raid on Pakistani paramilitary posts on Saturday, killing up to 36 people, government and security officials said.

Pakistan's support is crucial to U.S. efforts to stabilize Afghanistan, but cross-border raids have raised tension between Pakistan and Afghanistan in recent months.

Soldiers of the Chitral Scouts and police were among the dead in the string of attacks that began with an assault on paramilitary check posts in the border village of Arandu in the Chitral district just across from Afghanistan's Nuristan province.

"Reportedly, terrorists from Swat, Dir and Bajaur organized by Fazullah and Maulvi Faqir Mohammad with local Afghans have attacked the security forces posts," a military statement said, referring to northwestern Pakistani regions and senior Pakistani Taliban commanders.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/27/us-pakistan-violence-idUSTRE77Q0OK20110827

[bemildred]

1. Attack in Pakistan kills 25 troops

A large contingent of terrorists attacked three security check posts of Pakistan along the Durand Line at crack on dawn on Saturday, leaving 25 security personnel and 20 intruders dead in the exchange of fire that followed.

According to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), 200-300 terrorists from Kunar and Nooristan provinces of Afghanistan attacked seven Frontier Corps check posts in Chitral. Two border posts were over-run by the terrorists and reinforcements were sent there even as fighting went on for several hours.

The Army is working on the assumption that this attack was staged by terrorists from Swat, Dir and Bajaur with the help of Fazlullah and Maulvi Faqir Muhammad, who took refuge in Afghanistan following military operations in their native areas.

Through this summer, such border incursions from Afghanistan have become a new irritant in bilateral relations.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/article2403264.ece

[cosmicone]

2. Like the fable of the king who gave

his pet monkey a sword to defend him .... and as a fly landed on the king's head, the monkey swung the sword, beheading the king....

Pakistan's chickens are coming home to roost.

[Igel]

3. Ah, the irony.

Of course, the proper response is to say that anything Pakistan might do to stop such activities is a violation of Afghan sovereignty and is strictly prohibited.

A well-placed snort of mirth is appropriate while delivering the response.

[bemildred]

4. Suicide Bombers Escalate Assaults on Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan — Suicide bombers stepped up attacks in southern Afghanistan on Saturday in advance of Id al-Fitr, the festival next week that celebrates the end of Ramadan. But though Afghan security forces were the intended targets, civilians took the biggest toll.

Three separate blasts in Helmand and Kandahar Provinces left at least seven civilians dead, four of them children, and wounded dozens more, Afghan officials said. The attacks continued a pattern of violence across the country that is taking a disproportionately larger toll on ordinary citizens than on government and coalition forces. At least 17 civilians have been killed in the past three days in scattered attacks across the country, including five in a NATO airstrike.

Security forces nationwide have been on high alert anticipating increased violence with the onset of Id al-Fitr, in which Muslims celebrate the end of the month of fasting. Here in the capital, more than 13,000 extra police officers have been put on duty through the three-day festival, which begins early next week, to thwart Taliban threats of intensified attacks, officials with the Interior Ministry said.

In the deadliest of Saturday’s attacks, a suicide bomber detonated a vehicle packed with explosives outside a crowded bank in the southern city of Lashkar Gah, where Afghan soldiers and police officers were lined up at noontime to receive their monthly pay. Security forces stopped the car before it entered the bank, preventing a much higher death toll. Instead, the vehicle detonated in Mukhaberat Square, a busy intersection outside the bank near the provincial governor’s compound, police officials said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/28/world/asia/28afghanistan.html