Suicide Bombing Kills 24 Pakistani Soldiers

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, July 14 -- A suicide blast killed 24 Pakistani troops in North Waziristan on Saturday, dealing a potentially critical blow to a controversial peace deal between the government and tribal elders in a region where al-Qaeda has been rapidly reorganizing.

The attack, in which an explosives-laden car rammed into a military convoy, injured an additional 29 troops, was considered one of the most devastating strikes against the Pakistani military in recent years.


Pakistani activists of Islamic parties alliance hold a rally against government to condemn killings of militants who were holding Islamabad's Red Mosque, Friday, July 13, 2007 in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Protests were staged in all of Pakistan's major cities Friday over a government assault that left more than 100 dead at a mosque in the capital as security was tightened to foil possible revenge attacks, official said. The placard in center reading oppressor should account for the bloodshed (AP Photo / Anjum Naveed)
Pakistani activists of Islamic parties alliance hold a rally against government to condemn killings of militants who were holding Islamabad's Red Mosque, Friday, July 13, 2007 in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Protests were staged in all of Pakistan's major cities Friday over a government assault that left more than 100 dead at a mosque in the capital as security was tightened to foil possible revenge attacks, official said. The placard in center reading oppressor should account for the bloodshed

The violence came amid heightened tension in northwestern Pakistan after the government raided the besieged Red Mosque in Islamabad last week and killed at least 75 militants. Since then, radical clerics have called for revenge. At least 53 people have died in a spate of attacks over the past two weeks, with Pakistani security forces taking heavy losses.

Saturday's attack occurred in an area where security forces and pro-Taliban fighters have technically agreed to a cease-fire. But the viability of that agreement was in question Saturday, and there were indications that both sides were girding for more violence. Thousands of troops rumbled into the border region, though the military said it had no specific plans to attack.

A purported spokesman for the Taliban in Pakistan said in an interview that the government should prepare to fight a full-scale guerrilla war unless it immediately withdraws troops from North Waziristan. The government had recently set up checkpoints in the area, which the Taliban considers a violation of the peace deal.

"We give the government a deadline till [Sunday] for closing all checkpoints and withdrawing its forces," Abdullah Farhad, the purported spokesman, said in a telephone interview. "Otherwise, the peace agreement will collapse and we will start our war against the government troops."

The government said that the checkpoints were necessary because the other side was not abiding by the terms of the agreement but that overall the deal remained operative.

"The deal is very much in place and will stay in place," said Tariq Azim Khan, the state minister for information. "These threats are only made to destabilize the area. The vast majority of people there are still supporting the peace deal."

Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the Pakistani president who is considered a crucial U.S. counterterrorism ally, has consistently defended the agreement. His government has boasted that local tribesmen were aggressive this spring in ousting foreign fighters.

Khan said on Saturday that the North Waziristan deal should be a model for dealing with militancy in other parts of Pakistan. "There should be more deals like this," he said.

But as Khan spoke, the military appeared to be preparing for battle. Over the past several days, the army has been moving troops, vehicles and supplies into areas near Waziristan as part of a campaign Musharraf announced late last week to stamp out extremism. More than 20,000 soldiers have been brought into various trouble spots.

Musharraf is under intense U.S. pressure to do more to oust militants; he also faces stiff domestic challenges, both from hard-line religious leaders who consider him a pawn of Washington and from moderate forces that want a return to democratic, civilian rule in Pakistan.

The remote, semiautonomous tribal areas that line Pakistan's western border have been hotbeds of radicalism in recent years and major command centers for cross-border attacks on U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan.

Waziristan in particular has become the suspected base for al-Qaeda operations in the region. Just last week, a senior U.S. intelligence official warned Congress that al-Qaeda appears "to be fairly well settled into the safe haven in the ungoverned spaces of Pakistan." Recently, senior U.S. officials have also said they believe the North Waziristan deal is not working.


Pakistani activists of Islamic parties alliance hold a rally against government to condemn killings of militants who were holding Islamabad's Red Mosque, Friday, July 13, 2007 in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Protests were staged in all of Pakistan's major cities Friday over a government assault that left more than 100 dead at a mosque in the capital as security was tightened to foil possible revenge attacks, official said.

The deal signed in September between the Pakistani government and North Waziristan's tribal leaders -- a group that included some Taliban fighters -- was intended to compel local tribal forces to police the area and expel foreign fighters on their own. In exchange, the Pakistani military agreed to return to its bases after five years of unrest in the region that claimed the lives of hundreds of soldiers.

But the deal has come under widespread scrutiny, with security analysts arguing it amounted to a capitulation to extremists. Since it was signed, violence has surged in Afghanistan, and the Taliban has instituted a severe version of Islamic law in many areas on the Pakistani side of the border.

"Today, the result is very much clear. The Taliban have established their own state," said Latif Afridi, a tribal elder and former legislator from the western city of Peshawar. "The east of Afghanistan has become a problem for the United States and NATO forces, and the west of Pakistan has become a problem for the Pakistani forces. Both have emerged as big quagmires."

The violence Saturday came as Qazi Hussain Ahmad, leader of a coalition of hard-line religious parties, announced he would resign from Parliament in protest over the Red Mosque raid. Ahmad has alleged that casualties in the mosque were much higher than the government has admitted.

Ali reported from Peshawar, Pakistan.