Forty Pakistani forces hurt in militant attack

Islamabad, July 15: At least 40 Pakistani security personnel were wounded today when three roadside bombs hit a convoy in the northwest of the country and in a subsequent exchange of fire with suspected militants, the military said.

The police and paramilitary troops were passing through the town of Matta near the hilly Swat area, well known as a stronghold of pro-Taliban militants, when the attack occurred.

''Presently, we have reports that 40 people from the police and paramilitary troops have been wounded,'' a military official said.

The attack came a day after a suicide bomber killed 18 Pakistani paramilitary soldiers and wounded 24 in the volatile North Waziristan tribal region on the Afghan border.

Military spokesmen said that attack might have been linked to last week's commando storming of a radical mosque in the capital, Islamabad. The army said 75 people had been killed in the assault on the Lal Masjid mosque-religious school complex.

Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Sherpao said on Friday 60-65 of the dead were militants and four or five of them were foreigners, but did not say from where.

Pakistan's rugged northwest is a hotbed of al Qaeda and Taliban support, from where Taliban launch raids into Afghanistan, US military officers in Afghanistan say.

Reuters

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