Quetta

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Pakistan Security Forces Free 35 in Hospital Siege

Explosion at scene follows bus bombing

(Newser) - The siege of a hospital in southwestern Pakistan has ended after security forces stormed the building, the country's interior minister says. Forces freed 35 people trapped inside the building, killed four of the attackers, and arrested another, notes Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan. He says four security forces and one...

Pakistan Car Bomb Kills 11 Cops, Civilian

23 wounded in Quetta attack

(Newser) - A car bomb targeting a police vehicle killed 11 policemen and one civilian today in an area of southwest Pakistan wracked by a separatist insurgency and Islamic militancy, police said. The bombing on the outskirts of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, also wounded 23 people, said a police rep....

Bomb at Packed Market Kills 60 in Pakistan

It exploded as women and children were shopping for evening meal

(Newser) - A Pakistani official says the death toll in the evening bombing at a vegetable market in the city of Quetta has jumped to 60. Quetta police gave the updated figure a few hours after a bomb ripped through the crowded market—as dozens of women and children were shopping for...

British Doc Beheaded in Pakistan

Body found in orchard near Quetta, four months after kidnapping

(Newser) - A British doctor working for the Red Cross in Pakistan has been found beheaded after being kidnapped in January, reports the Guardian . The body of Khalil Rasjed Dale was found in an orchard just outside of Quetta, with a note saying he had been killed by the Taliban. Dale was...

Militants' Coordinated Attacks Kill 11 Soldiers in Pakistan

150 militants hit five security posts

(Newser) - Some 150 Islamist militants attacked five security posts today in an unusually large and coordinated assault close to the Afghan border, sparking hours of fighting that killed 11 soldiers and wounded 12, officials said; 24 insurgents died. Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants often stage attacks in northwest Pakistan, but the overnight...

US in Secret Talks With Ruthless Haqqani Network

Which have been described as 'extremely tentative'

(Newser) - The US and Afghan governments have both been in secret talks with the Haqqani network, which they have come to believe is the most powerful and ruthless of all the Afghan insurgent groups, sources tell the Guardian . The US has been talking to the network through intermediaries for more than...

For Pakistan, Taliban Leader Outranks US

Islamabad backs off Haqqani, a crucial link to Afghanistan

(Newser) - Pakistani officials are balking at pursuing a Taliban leader who poses a major threat to US forces in Afghanistan, underscoring their lack of faith in the Obama surge. Pakistan has made a separate peace with Siraj Haqqani, allowing him the use of North Waziristan as a base of operations after...

Obama Mulls Sending Drones Farther Into Pakistan

Strikes in city of Quetta would risk more civilian casualties

(Newser) - The Obama administration is considering using Predator drones for the first time to strike beyond the tribal area inside Pakistan. While many are uncomfortable with the idea of unmanned aircraft firing missiles into the city of Quetta—a Taliban hotbed of 850,000 people—in a US-allied nation, some American...

Taliban Widens Afghan Attacks From Pakistan Base

Forces controlled from Pakistan respond nimbly

(Newser) - The Afghan Taliban leadership operating out of Pakistan has surprised the US military by countering its offensive in southern Afghanistan with a shrewd expansion into the north and west of the country. “They’ve outmaneuvered us time and time again,” an intelligence official tells the New York Times....

US May Strike Deeper Into Pakistan

Drones may target Taliban sanctuaries beyond tribal areas

(Newser) - The Obama administration is considering expanding its covert war in Pakistan beyond tribal areas to strike Taliban havens in regions under the central government's control, reports the New York Times. US commanders believe the Taliban, under the leadership of Mullah Omar, is operating out of sanctuaries in Baluchistan—which borders...

Pakistan Quake Kills 135, Toll Rising

6.4 quake collapses thousands of huts; death toll expected to soar

(Newser) - A 6.4 quake rocked southwest Pakistan early this morning, killing more than 135 people, AFP reports. Pakistan has sent troops to the region to provide assistance and expects the death toll to rise steeply. Most of the deaths were in remote villages in the Afghanistan border region, where mud...

Police Gas Pakistan Lawyers
Police Gas Pakistan Lawyers
Feb 21, 2008 6:32 AM CST

Police Gas Pakistan Lawyers

Protests supporting sacked chief justice turn violent

(Newser) - Police in Pakistan fired tear gas at a rally of about 100 lawyers in Karachi as the country's deposed chief justice, still under house arrest, roused supporters across the country on a smuggled mobile phone, calling for the incoming government to reinstate him and his colleagues. The justice, whom President...

Taliban: Korea Paid $4M Ransom
Taliban: Korea Paid $4M Ransom
Feb 7, 2008 9:40 AM CST

Taliban: Korea Paid $4M Ransom

Commander says Seoul paid millions to release hostages

(Newser) - The Taliban released 21 South Korean hostages five months ago only after Seoul paid at least $4 million in ransom, a senior insurgent commander now claims. Contrary to South Korea's official denial to Newsweek that money changed hands, the commander said freeing the missionaries without recompense "would not have...

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