Pakistan army helicopters fired missiles killing three militants on Sunday, officials said, in apparent retaliation for a Taliban bomb attack that killed 20 soldiers within the restive northwest.
The helicopters fired at a road within the village of Musaki situated within the same tribal region because the bombing earlier Sunday, intelligence and civil administration officials said.
One of the missiles struck a close-by house, killing a five-year-old girl and a seven-year-old boy, a native administration official added, although security officials couldn’t confirm the civilian casualties.
The bombing earlier Sunday, claimed by the Pakistani Taliban, killed 20 soldiers and wounded 30 when it ripped through an army convoy.
The attack, among the many deadliest to hit Pakistani security forces lately, happened within the city of Bannu near the North Waziristan tribal region that’s a stronghold of militants associated with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
“A vehicle-borne improvised explosive device caused the blast,” a senior military official told AFP, adding the precise circumstances were unclear.
An official statement said 20 soldiers were killed and 30 injured within the attack, which hit among the vehicles inside the convoy at 8:45 am.
The convoy was about to go away for town of Razmak in North Waziristan when the blast hit one of many civilian vehicles hired to maneuver troops.
Taliban ‘ready for talks’
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan spokesman Shahidullah Shahid claimed responsibility for the convoy bombing.
“It was a part of our fight against a mundane system,” he said by telephone from an undisclosed location.
“We will perform more such attacks in future,” he said, adding the Taliban were seeking revenge for the deaths in their former chief Hakimullah Mehsud and deputy Waliur Rehman — both killed in US drone attacks.
The Taliban vowed they wouldn’t engage in any dialogue with the govt of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif following the death of Mehsud.
But Shahid told AFP Sunday the crowd “is ready for meaningful negotiations despite facing huge leadership losses, if the govt. proves its authority and sincerity” by halting drone attacks and withdrawing troops from tribal areas.
Taliban insurgents have led a bloody campaign against the Pakistani state since 2007, staging hundreds of attacks on security forces and government targets.
An eyewitness told AFP by telephone the vehicle hit by Sunday’s bomb was transformed into scorched metal.
“I collected human remains including hands and legs from the positioning after the attack,” he said on condition of anonymity.
Body parts and soldiers’ personal belongings littered the scene.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the attack, adding he would cancel a planned visit to the area Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland within the wake of a up to date spike in terrorism.
“Our nation is united against extremism and terrorism and the sacrifices rendered by our citizens and personnel of law enforcing agencies won’t go in vain,” he said, in accordance with a press release by his office.
‘Demoralizing attack’
Pakistani troops have for years been battling the Taliban and other homegrown insurgents within the tribal belt next to the Afghan border, which Washington considers the primary hub of militants plotting attacks at the West and in Afghanistan.
The army’s headquarters in Rawalpindi came under attack in 2009, while major naval and air force bases have also been targeted in battles which have lasted for several hours.
A senior Pakistani general was killed in a blast last September consisting of two other soldiers in an attack claimed by the Taliban.
In May 2011 89 paramilitary troops were killed in an attack at an army academy within the northwestern town of Charsadda.
Talat Masood, a retired general and security analyst, said recent assaults at the army were “testing the patience of the military” and were “extremely demoralizing”.
The civilian government led by Sharif, who came to power after elections last year, has said it’s seeking talks with the Taliban.
But thus far little progress have been seen and terror attacks rose 20 percent in 2013 consistent with the independent Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies.
Masood said the government’s policy was creating frustration in the army.
“It is becoming so evident to people who the govt is so ineffective and paralysed and has no policy or strategy, while the army’s hands are tied and it’s being targeted and never being allowed to do so.”
Pakistan, which joined the united states-led “war on terror” in 2001, says greater than 40,000 people has been killed inside the country since then by militants who oppose Islamabad’s US alliance.
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