Nearly two dozen reported killed in Pakistan after suicide attack

PESHAWAR, Pakistan – Nearly two dozen militants were killed early Thursday in a firefight with security forces in Pakistan’s restive North Waziristan Agency, the army said. There were unverified accounts, however, that civilian bystanders were also killed.

Details were sketchy but security officials who requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak said insurgents ambushed an army convoy as it was moving between two checkpoints in the Mirali area, catching the soldiers by surprise. The army retaliated, killing 23 militants, they said.

The convoy had gone to rescue soldiers injured the previous day in an attack by a suicide bomber as they were praying.

But one security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that though the army said all those killed were militants, there also were civilians among the dead. The information could not be immediately confirmed, but it was corroborated by some area residents.

Ansarul Mujahedin, a little-known militant group linked to the Taliban, claimed responsibility for the suicide attack.

It occurred when the bomber drove his explosive-laden vehicle into a mosque where the soldiers were praying. Preliminary reports suggested that five soldiers were killed and 34 wounded.

Residents said that after the attack soldiers fired at two hotels near the town of Mirali where stranded truckers were spending the night. The reports could not be immediately confirmed. Residents said that numerous drivers and locals were killed in the Dolat Khan and Honeymoon hotels.

In another incident, security forces launched an assault in North Waziristan after receiving information that militants in the Mir Ali area were in the process of building vehicle-borne suicide bombs, according to an Islamabad-based security official. He said 10 insurgents were killed.

Special correspondent Ali reported from Peshawar and Sahi reported from Islamabad.