A Taliban suicide bomber killed 12 Pakistanis during an attack on a police convoy in northwestern Pakistan today.
The suicide bomber detonated his car packed with explosives as a police van passed by in the settled district of Dera Ismail Khan. Three policemen and nine civilians were killed, and 10 Pakistanis were wounded, according to Reuters.
Today’s attack is the first major suicide strike in Pakistan since the April 28 bombing in Peshawar that targeted a police checkpoint. Four policemen were killed in the attack.
Pakistan’s security forces in the Taliban-plagued northwest are a common target of suicide and organized attacks. The Taliban also focus their attacks on pro-government tribes and politicians in an effort to demoralize the opposition.
Military strikes at Taliban in Arakzai
Further north, in the tribal agency of Arakzai, the military claimed it killed 47 Taliban fighters during clashes over the past two days. Two soldiers were also reported killed during the fighting.
The fighting broke out after the Taliban attacked military checkpoints and convoys throughout the region. The military said it killed the Taliban fighters during counterattacks. The heaviest fighting took place in the Dabori area; 28 Taliban were reported to have been killed there alone.
Dabori was also the scene of a large Taliban attack on May 10. Nine Pakistani Frontier Corps troops were killed during that attack, which saw their outpost overrun by Taliban fighters. The military claimed that 37 Taliban fighters were killed in the counterstrike.
The Pakistani military has claimed that more than 720 Taliban fighters have been killed in Arakzai since March 21, while in fact, only 19 soldiers, including two today, have been killed, according to reports compiled by The Long War Journal.
A US military intelligence official contacted by The Long War Journal believes the Pakistani military reports of Taliban casualties are exaggerated. More than a month ago, Pakistani military officials claimed the Taliban was defeated in Arakzai and “fleeing” to the Tirah Valley in Khyber.
Akhunzada Aslam Farooqui is the leader of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan in the Arakzai tribal agency. Farooqui took control of the Taliban after Hakeemullah Mehsud was promoted to lead the entire Taliban movement in Pakistan’s tribal areas and in the northwest. Farooqui was described as the “patron-in-chief” of the Taliban in Arakzai and a “close friend of Mullah Mohammad Omar” back in 2001. At the opening of Operation Enduring Freedom, Farooqui promised to have 12,000 tribesmen to battle US forces in Afghanistan and offered support such as sanctuary and weapons and ammunition. He claimed to lead 7,000 Taliban fighters.
