September 21, 2008	Sunday	Ramazan 20, 1429

MIRAMSHAH / WANA, Sept 20: Seven soldiers and five civilians were killed in two attacks on military vehicles in Waziristan on Saturday.

In North Waziristan, a suicide bomber rammed an explosive-laden car into an army supplies convoy near Norak, 12 kilometres east of Miramshah, a military official said. The convoy was on its way from Bannu to Miramshah.

“The car rammed into a truck of the military logistics convoy and ignited a fuel tanker,” the official said.

Flames engulfed two other military trucks, a coach and an oil tanker. Witnesses said a petrol pump had also caught fire.

Security agencies cordoned off the area and closed the Bannu-Miramshah road to traffic.

A Pakistan Army spokesman said that three soldiers had been killed in the attack.

Five civilians, including the driver and the cleaner of the non-military oil tanker, also lost their lives.

Another civilian died of injuries in hospital.

Twelve of the wounded — nine soldiers and three civilians — were evacuated by helicopter to the Combined Military Hospital in Bannu.

The injured soldiers were identified as Sharafat, Jaffar, Liaqat, Salahuddin, Ubaidullah, Saifullah, Mujeebur Rehman and Shahid Karim.

“The rest of the convoy safely reached Miramshah,” a military spokesman said.

The attack was the second since the signing of a peace agreement between tribesmen in Mirali, North Waziristan, and the government in February. Local Taliban had blamed the first suicide bombing on foreign militants.

Interestingly, local Taliban leaders who had earlier pledged to avenge recent missile attacks in North and South Waziristan, dissociated themselves from the blasts.

Ahmadullah Ahmadi, a spokesman for local Taliban leader Hafiz Gul Bahadur, told Dawn over phone that his group condemned the incidents and peace agreements between the government and tribesmen were intact.

The Miramshah-based Hafiz Gul Bahadur had distanced himself from the South Waziristan-based Maulvi Nazir’s group earlier this year. Both groups represent the Ahmadzai-Wazir tribe and enjoy government support.

VEHICLE HITS BOMB: In Wana, South Waziristan’s administrative headquarters, a military vehicle hit a roadside bomb near the Brigade Headquarters in the evening, killing four soldiers. Three others were injured.

Sources said that a 35-vehicle convoy was going from Dera Ismail Khan to the Brigade Headquarters at Zari Noor Colony. One of the vehicles struck an explosive device. The forces opened fire and sealed the area after the bombing.