12 November 2009 / AP, PARACHINAR
Helicopter gunships shelled militant hide-outs in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, killing 10 suspected fighters after the Taliban murdered two paramilitary soldiers at an outpost in the area.
The attack on the outpost in Mohmand, one of Pakistan’s semiautonomous tribal areas, was the latest staged by militants in retaliation for an army offensive against the Taliban’s main stronghold in Pakistan’s northwest. Militants hope the attacks will weaken the army’s resolve and have shown a growing willingness to target innocent civilians in an attempt to weaken public support for the offensive. A suicide car bomber attacked a crowded market in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, killing 26 people, the fourth such attack in about a month. Pakistani officials have blamed such attacks on the Taliban, but the group has reportedly denied being behind at least some of the blasts, sparking conspiracy theories and making it more difficult for the government to convert public anger into greater support for its crackdown on militants. “I think the government itself is making these blasts, or the Taliban,” Muzamal Khan told AP Television News as he attended Wednesday’s funeral for the victims of the latest market bombing.
