Suicide bomber kills 10 at Peshawar checkpoint

The Taliban have struck yet again in the provincial capital of Peshawar. A suicide bomber killed 10 Pakistanis and wounded 20 more after detonating at a police checkpoint in Peshawar. The attack took place in the Pushta Khara area of Peshawar as police attempted to search a car as it was to enter the Ring Road, the major artery in Peshawar. Two policemen were among the 10 people killed. Twenty more Pakistanis were wounded, some seriously.

The attack comes one day after a suicide bomber killed 10 people in an attack on the headquarters of the Inter-Services Intelligence agency in Peshawar. The building was leveled.

Peshawar has borne the brunt of the Taliban terror offensive, which began on Oct. 5. Seven of the 22 major attacks in Pakistan have taken place in or near the capital of the Northwest Frontier Province.

The Taliban and allied jihadi groups have launched military assaults against the Army’s General Headquarters in Rawalpindi and against police centers in Lahore. In addition, suicide bombers have struck in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Peshawar, Kohat, Swat, Charsadda, Bannu, and Shangla. More than 310 Pakistanis, mostly civilians, have been killed in the Taliban strikes [see list below].

The Taliban and al Qaeda have blamed Pakistan’s intelligence agencies and a US contracting firm for conducting the attack that have killed civilians. Some Pakistanis refuse to believe that the Taliban would kill fellow Muslims, while the government continues to implicate India and other “foreign powers” for backing the Taliban.

Pakistani troops battle the Taliban throughout the northwest

Pakistani troops and the Taliban battled throughout the northwest over the past 24 hours.

In South Waziristan, the military said 35 Taliban fighters and 17 soldiers were killed in fighting since Nov. 12. Fifteen of the soldiers were killed outside of the town of Kanigoram, a region known to shelter Uzbek and central Asian fighters from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and the Islamic Jihad Group.

In the Arakzai tribal agency, Pakistani Air Force fighter-bombers struck Taliban ammunition and supply depots that were established in the homes of Sikhs who were forced to leave the tribal agency. The Taliban imposed sharia, or Islamic law, in Arakzai last December and forced the Sikhs to pay jizya, a tax enforced on non-Muslims. Many Sikhs fled their homes, which were subsequently taken over by the Taliban. The military said seven Taliban were killed and five more were wounded in the strikes.

In the northern district of Swat, the military said 13 Taliban fighters were killed in two separate clashes. Seven of the Taliban fighters were killed after ambushing a military convoy, while eight more were killed during a sweep in a mountainous region of the district. The Taliban have re-launched a low-scale guerrilla war in Swat after a major military operation to retake the district from Taliban control began in April.

In Bajaur, the military said it detained 40 Taliban fighters in the Khar region, while the Army pounded the Mamood area with artillery strikes after Taliban fighters attacked police checkpoints. The Army had claimed in April that the Taliban were defeated and driven from Bajaur.

Major Taliban attacks in Pakistan since Oct. 5:

Nov. 13, 2009: A suicide bomber killed 10 people in an attack on a police checkpoint in Peshawar.

Nov. 13, 2009: A suicide bomber killed 10 people in an attack on the headquarters of the Inter-Services Intelligence agency in Peshawar.

Nov. 13, 2009: A suicide bomber wounded 10 people in an attack on a police station in Bannu.

Nov. 10, 2009: A suicide bomber killed 24 people in a market in Charsadda.

Nov. 9, 2009: A suicide bomber killed four people during an attack at a police checkpoint outside Peshawar.

Nov. 8, 2009: A suicide bomber killed an anti-Taliban leader and 12 others in an attack at a market in the town of Matni near Peshawar.

Nov. 5, 2009: An Army brigadier and a soldier were wounded in an ambush in Islamabad.

Nov. 2, 2009: A Taliban suicide bomber killed 34 Pakistanis and wounded scores more in an attack in Rawalpindi.

Nov. 2, 2009: A pair of suicide bombers killed one policeman and wounded 25 security officers and civilians after the pair detonated their vests at a security checkpoint.

Oct. 28, 2009: A Taliban suicide bomber killed 119 Pakistanis and wounded hundreds more in an attack on a bazaar in Peshawar.

Oct. 27, 2009: A brigadier general who served as the director of defense services guards at the Army General Headquarters escaped an assassination attempt in Islamabad.

Oct. 23, 2009: The Taliban detonated an anti-tank mine and hit a bus transporting a wedding party in Mohmand. The explosion killed 15 of the passengers and wounded six more.

Oct. 23, 2009: The Taliban detonated a car bomb outside a popular restaurant in the residential Hayatabad area in Peshawar. The attack wounded 13 civilians; nine are said to be in critical condition.

Oct. 23, 2009: A Taliban suicide bomber killed seven people during an attack at a security checkpoint near the Kamra Air Weapon Complex in the district of Attock in Punjab province.

Oct. 21, 2009: The Taliban assassinated a brigadier general and his driver during an ambush in Islamabad.

Oct. 20, 2009: A pair of suicide bombers detonated their vests at Islamabad’s International Islamic University, killing five.

Oct. 16, 2009: A pair of suicide bombers, including a female, attacked a police station and a building housing an intelligence service in Peshawar, killing 11.

Oct. 15, 2009: Terrorist assault teams attacked the Federal Investigation Agency building, the Manawan police training center, and the Elite Force Headquarters in Lahore. Twenty-six people, including nine terrorists and 12 policemen, were killed.

Oct. 15, 2009: A suicide bomber rammed a car into a police station in Kohat, killing 11 people, including policemen and children.

Oct. 12, 2009: A suicide bomber detonated a car packed with explosives as a military convoy passed through a checkpoint in a market in Alpuri in Shangla. The attack killed 41 people, including six security personnel.

Oct. 10, 2009: An assault team attacked the Army General Headquarters and took 42 security personnel captive. Eleven soldiers were killed, including a brigadier general and a lieutenant colonel, along with nine members of the assault team; and 39 hostages were freed.

Oct. 9, 2009: A suicide bomber detonated a car packed with explosives in a bazaar in Peshawar, killing 49 civilians.

Oct. 5, 2009: A suicide bomber entered the World Food Program office in Islamabad and detonated his vest, killing five UN workers, including an Iraqi.

Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal.

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7 Comments

  • Ayamo says:

    Bill, what’s your thought about “Path of Salvation”?
    Will it accomplish anything in the long term.
    As for the suicide bomb: The more the Taliban kill civilians the more they will lose support. A good thing.

  • ArneFufkin says:

    Those sweethearts from the Taliban winning more hearts and minds.

  • Spooky says:

    How is there a city left after all these attacks? I mean good lord, I don’t think even Mogadishu is this bad anymore…

  • Peter says:

    Good report Bill, always have liked to come to your site to read your articles and opinions on the situation in this war. I was looking at your list of Taliban attacks in Pakistan since Oct 5th though and think your tally of more than 310 killed is low. I get closer to 405-410 with about 45-50 being security forces?? then of course you have a large number of soldiers and frontier corps (~100) who have died in attacks and fighting in the tribal areas during that time as well. I think these attacks are rather pointless and agree that the civilian casualties are making the Taliban even more unpopular.
    Take care.

  • Dean says:

    Meanwhile, what’s happening in S. Waziristan?

  • Tathagata Mukherjee says:

    Peter>>civilian casualties are making the Taliban even more unpopular.
    —————–
    As usual, most Pakistanis are in denial- they refuse to believe these are done by talibans. They believe its done by hindus (india)/christians/jews!
    Even before these bombings, Bin Laden had a positive approval rating in mid 60s in Pak. Obama is in mid teens and pres zardari in lower teen.
    So, expect nothing.

  • Xavier says:

    I too do not understand why many commenters here are so naive as to believe that Taliban will become unpopular due to these attacks.
    Most people will believe that US/Israel/India are behind all these attacks. So it’s not important who carries out attacks. What is important is what people believe.
    Taliban’s popularity may drop in some segments of population but majority Pakistanis hating Taliban? I don’t think so.
    In fact there was a recent article in NYT, which sees so much positive since OBL’s approval ratings have plummeted, in the same article they mention US’s ratings. They don’t seem to be bothered by the fact that OBL has better rating than US, despite US generosity in billions of dollars.

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