Pakistan military says 28 dead in two militant attacks
PHOTO CAPTION: Illustrative photo — A soldier stands guard along the border fence outside the Kitton outpost on the border with Afghanistan in North Waziristan, Pakistan October 18, 2017. REUTERS/Caren Firouz
By Mushtaq Ali and Gibran Naiyyar Peshimam
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) -Two separate attacks by militants on an army base and a health centre in northwest Pakistan killed 28 people, including 10 soldiers as well as female health workers and children, the military said on Tuesday.
The attacks, both of which occurred on Monday, coincide with a resurgence of Islamist militancy in the northwest border region with Afghanistan, which last month prompted the government to start a counter-insurgency operation in the area.
In the first incident, Islamist militants attacked a military base in northwestern Pakistan, killing eight security personnel, the military said on Tuesday, after a suicide bomber rammed a vehicle loaded with explosives into a perimeter wall.
Militants targeted the base in Bannu, on the border with the tribal area of North Waziristan, which is known as a hotbed of Islamist militancy, and is close to the Afghanistan border. Security forces killed all 10 assailants involved, the military said in a statement.
"This timely and effective response...prevented major catastrophe, saving precious innocent lives," the statement added.
Among the dead in Monday's attack were seven army soldiers and one paramilitary soldier.
The British colonial-era military base has historically been used as a launch pad for anti-militant operations, and is surrounded by civilian dwellings, which were shaken by the loud explosion from Monday's blast, two local officials told Reuters.
They said the initial blast was used to take down the perimeter wall to allow the other militants to enter the base.
The attack was claimed by the Hafiz Gul Bahadur Group, which the military said operates out of neighbouring Afghanistan "to orchestrate acts of terrorism inside Pakistan".
A spokesman for Afghanistan's Taliban administration did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Islamabad says it has consistently taken up the issue of cross-border attacks with the Taliban administration, which denies allowing Afghan soil to be used for attacks.
The matter has led to clashes between the border forces of the two countries. The militant group involved in the latest attack was the same one targeted by Pakistan in a rare cross border operation.
"Pakistan Armed Forces will...take all necessary measures as deemed appropriate against these threats emanating from Afghanistan," the military said on Tuesday.
In the second, separate, attack late Monday night, five civilians, including two female health workers and two children, were killed in an attack on a health facility in the Dera Ismail Khan district. Two soldiers and all three militants were killed in subsequent clashes, the military said.
No group has yet taken responsibility for the second attack.
(Reporting by Gibran Peshimam in Karachi and Mushtaq Ali in Peshawar; Additional reporting by Saud Mehsud in Dera Ismail Khan; Editing by Miral Fahmy and Angus MacSwan)
