March 21, 2008	Friday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 12, 1429

WANA, March 20: A suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into a military vehicle in front of the brigade headquarters at Zari Noor in South Waziristan on Thursday, killing five soldiers and wounding 11 others, officials said.

A man claiming to be a spokesman for the pro-government militant Commander Maulvi Nazir claimed responsibility for the attack.

“We have declared that ‘Mujahideen’ will soon avenge the death of their colleagues in the missile strike (on Sunday),” Commander Malang told Dawn by telephone from an undisclosed location.

It is for the first time that Maulvi Nazir’s group has claimed responsibility for a suicide attack.

Nine militants were killed and 10 others wounded when three missiles hit a compound in the Shah Nawazkot area near Wana on Sunday. Witnesses said they had seen a plane flying over the area shortly before the attack.

Sources said the Thursday’s suicide attack took place at about 3pm when the military vehicle parked at the main gate of the brigade headquarters was hit.

Both the vehicles were completely destroyed and the venue was littered with human limbs. Five soldiers died on the spot and the wounded were taken to a military hospital in the area.

At least three nomads are feared to have been killed after some rockets fired from the Afghan territory, hit a makeshift house near the Angoor Adda in South Waziristan on Thursday. Official sources confirmed the attack, but said they did not know if the area hit by rockets was in Pakistan.

Meanwhile, Commander Baitullah Mehsud has again denied reports about his involvement in the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, our correspondent adds from Bajaur tribal region. Baitullah spokesman Maulvi Umar told this correspondent by telephone on Thursday that the government was involving the chief of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan in the assassination case of the prime minister to create law and order in the country.

“Commander Baitullah has already contradicted the government claim and leadership of Pakistan People’s Party also knows that he (Baitullah) has nothing to do with the assassination of the BB,” the spokesman said.

An anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi declared Baitullah and four other militants proclaimed offenders in the assassination case of Ms Bhutto on Tuesday.