Rocket Attack Kills 8 in Northwest Pakistan
25 July 2007
Pakistani police say militants have fired four rockets in a town in the northwest of the country, killing at least eight people.
Police say the militants fired the rockets early Wednesday morning, striking houses in Bannu, a town in the troubled North West Frontier Province.
At least 35 people were wounded.
Pakistani security officials have blamed pro-Taleban groups for a series of bombings and shootings in the tribal northwest region.
On Tuesday, officials said a top Taleban militant blew himself up to avoid arrest by Pakistani forces who had surrounded his hideout in the southwestern province of Baluchistan.
Authorities say Abdullah Mehsud killed himself with a hand grenade at the home of an Islamist politician in the town of Zhob, which borders the Waziristan tribal region. Three of his associates were detained.
Mehsud had been imprisoned at the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in 2001, and was blamed for a series of attacks in Pakistan after his release in 2004.
Pakistani officials called Mehsud's death a major achievement for the government as it faces U.S. pressure to crack down on Taleban and al-Qaida bases near the Afghan border.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.
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