A suicide bomber killed seven Pakistanis in the latest attack on Pakistan’s beleaguered security forces in the Northwest Frontier Province.
The suicide bomber attacked a police checkpoint near the town of Doabo in the district of Hangu. The Pakistani government claimed only one policeman was killed, but Geo TV said three policemen and four civilians were killed. Four policemen were also injured in the attack.
The bombing in Hangu is the latest in a series of attacks against the police and the paramilitary Frontier Corps in Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province and the tribal areas. There have been five suicide attacks against the police and Frontier Corps in Hangu, South Waziristan, Mardan, Mohmand, and Bannu since Oct. 26. Twenty-eight policemen and paramilitary troops have been killed in the attacks, and dozens more have been wounded.
The Taliban and al Qaeda are conducting “simple operations that are easy to execute, and avoid complications that may lower chances of success,” to strike at Pakistani security forces, Daily Times reported.
“You face little problem in execution of any plan if it is simple and straight and Al Qaeda is master in doing so,” officials told Daily Times. “That is what you need to do – keep the operation as simple as you can.”
Sunday’s suicide attack on the Frontier Corps outpost in South Waziristan took place inside the fort (and not outside, as initially reported) after guards allowed the driver to pass through. The bomber said he was delivering supplies, and called troops over to help unload the truck before detonating. The military said eight troops were killed in the attack but sources told Daily Times the number is much higher.
The Oct. 9 suicide attack on the Anti-Terrorism Force headquarters in Islamabad was carried out by a bomber that fooled the police to think he was delivering candy to a senior official. The bomber detonated after he was allowed to pass through the main gate. Eight police were wounded in the Islamabad suicide attack.
Elsewhere in the Northwest Frontier Province, the Taliban assassinated a senior tribal leader in the Arakzai agency. “He was actively participating in the talks between government and Mamoonzai tribe after shelling in the area,” Geo TV reported.
The Taliban has ruthlessly attacked tribal leader who are attempting to organize against them in the Northwest Frontier Province and the lawless tribal areas. The Pakistani government has been courting the tribes to support the efforts to take on the Taliban in the tribal areas and in the settled districts of the Northwest Frontier Province. Tribal armies, or lashkars, have been formed in Peshawar, Swat, Dir, Buner, Bajaur, Khyber, and Arakzai.
The Taliban greatly outnumber the tribal groups opposed to them, sources told The Long War Journal. And the tribal groups have little authority and no organization to support them. Some groups refuse to cooperate with the government and the military.
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The Thunder Run has linked to this post in the blog post From the Front: 11/04/2008 News and Personal dispatches from the front and the home front.
This is the same tactic that AQ used in Iraq,which turned the locals against them and changed the dynamics of the insurgency and war.
Let’s all hope this is another mistake made by desperate thugs and will turn the local population against them, which will smoke them out of their safe haven, put them on the run again, and be a perfect opportunity to make martyrs out of those nasty animals.