NYT claims it's at least 60. (That's after Tuesday's suicide bombing where 32 islamists were jihaded by other islamists. In this game they're playing, it's all about who jihads the other first. A bit like gun-drawing in the wild-west, but more gory, more inhumane and with more casualties.)
I hear Geelani and his gangsters-of-islam occupying Kashmir - who proudly declared themselves Pakistanis recently (again) - are now going to jihad the Taliban. I wish Taliban and Kashmiri jihadists both very good luck in their allah's holy war against each other:
To Geelani: the Taliban are surely infidels for attacking dar-ul-islam TSP.
To Taliban: TSP must be infidels for attacking the faithful Baluchi Afghans and the Bajaur and TSP-knows-who-else.
www.nytimes.com/2008/08/22/world/asia/22pstan.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Suicide Attack at Pakistan Arms Plant Kills 60 People</b>
By SALMAN MASOOD and GRAHAM BOWLEY
Published: August 21, 2008
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan â <b>At least 60 people</b> were killed and scores injured when two suicide attackers blew themselves up Thursday outside the entry gates of Pakistanâs largest military munitions plant, the police and hospital officials said. The brazen, coordinated attack, the latest on a military target, was the deadliest in the country in more than a year. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility.
The bombings came just days after the resignation of President Pervez Musharraf, leaving two rival political parties in the governing coalition haggling over the question of succession and adding a new layer of turbulence to an unstable, nuclear-armed nation. Neither party has been anxious to take on the campaign against the militants, which is seen here as an American conflict foisted on the country.
The large military compound is located in the city of Wah, in the same district as the city of Rawalpindi, where Pakistanâs military has its headquarters. The attack occurred during the afternoon rush hour at a shift change, while workers were exiting the compound gates.
Nasir Durrani, a regional police official in the Rawalpindi district, which includes Wah, said one attack occurred outside the main gate to the compound and the second attack took place outside another gate.
Panic gripped the area after the attack. Ambulances rushed to Wah from the nearby garrison city of Rawalpindi and security personnel cordoned off the area around the compound.
As the ruling coalition wrangles over who will succeed Mr. Musharraf, the country is facing an emboldened Taliban insurgency that is rapidly moving beyond its sanctuaries in the tribal regions of Pakistan and reaching into other parts of the country.
<b>Maulvi Umar, a Taliban spokesman, was quoted in the Pakistani media as saying that the dual attacks Thursday were a response to the continuing military operation against militants in Bajaur tribal district. He warned of more attacks across the country.
In an attack within Pakistanâs tribal region on Tuesday, for which the Taliban claimed responsibility, a suicide bomber ripped into the emergency room of the district hospital in a town near Waziristan, killing 32 people and wounding 55.</b>
The previous highest death toll was 55 people killed in Kurram in the tribal areas in February when a suicide bomber blew himself in front of a polling place two days before the parliamentary elections, according to a tally by the daily newspaper, Dawn.
Unlike Mr. Musharraf â who was a ready if not always effective ally of the United States in its war on terror â the new elected coalition has so far been unwilling or unable to confront the expanding Taliban insurgency, which seems determined to topple the government.
The United States has publicly complained that Pakistan is not doing enough to combat the militants and to stop them from crossing the border into Afghanistan.
In a statement Thursday, Asif Ali Zardari, one of the leaders of the coalition, condemned the attacks as âdespicable and cowardly.â Mr. Zardari, who is among the leading candidates to succeed Mr. Musharraf, said the attack would âonly strengthen the resolve of the coalition and the people of Pakistan to fight militancy and terrorism.â
According to Agence France-Presse, the ordnance plant at Wah is a compound of about 20 factory buildings where artillery, tank and antiaircraft ammunition for the Pakistani armed forces is made; it employs more than 25,000 workers. Security is tight at the compound, and it appears that the attackers were unable to gain entry inside the plant.
âHad they been able to get inside, the destruction would have been unimaginable,â said Ikram Sehgal, a defense analyst based in Karachi.. But for Pakistan, the Taliban threat is becoming increasingly a domestic one. <b>In the past month, for example, more than 130 girlsâ schools have been burned by the Taliban in the region of Swat alone, and in the past two weeks there have been daily casualties in clashes in the tribal areas between the insurgents and the military.</b>
(Missionary flash: "Pakjabi Oryans oppressing the tribal Dravidioids in TSP" - surprised the christolying missionaries didn't bring this one up yet.)
Many of the <b>60 suicide bomb attacks last year</b>, and indeed, the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in December, have been attributed to the Pakistani Taliban.
Salman Masood reported from Islamabad, Pakistan, and Graham Bowley from New York.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I hear Geelani and his gangsters-of-islam occupying Kashmir - who proudly declared themselves Pakistanis recently (again) - are now going to jihad the Taliban. I wish Taliban and Kashmiri jihadists both very good luck in their allah's holy war against each other:
To Geelani: the Taliban are surely infidels for attacking dar-ul-islam TSP.
To Taliban: TSP must be infidels for attacking the faithful Baluchi Afghans and the Bajaur and TSP-knows-who-else.
www.nytimes.com/2008/08/22/world/asia/22pstan.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Suicide Attack at Pakistan Arms Plant Kills 60 People</b>
By SALMAN MASOOD and GRAHAM BOWLEY
Published: August 21, 2008
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan â <b>At least 60 people</b> were killed and scores injured when two suicide attackers blew themselves up Thursday outside the entry gates of Pakistanâs largest military munitions plant, the police and hospital officials said. The brazen, coordinated attack, the latest on a military target, was the deadliest in the country in more than a year. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility.
The bombings came just days after the resignation of President Pervez Musharraf, leaving two rival political parties in the governing coalition haggling over the question of succession and adding a new layer of turbulence to an unstable, nuclear-armed nation. Neither party has been anxious to take on the campaign against the militants, which is seen here as an American conflict foisted on the country.
The large military compound is located in the city of Wah, in the same district as the city of Rawalpindi, where Pakistanâs military has its headquarters. The attack occurred during the afternoon rush hour at a shift change, while workers were exiting the compound gates.
Nasir Durrani, a regional police official in the Rawalpindi district, which includes Wah, said one attack occurred outside the main gate to the compound and the second attack took place outside another gate.
Panic gripped the area after the attack. Ambulances rushed to Wah from the nearby garrison city of Rawalpindi and security personnel cordoned off the area around the compound.
As the ruling coalition wrangles over who will succeed Mr. Musharraf, the country is facing an emboldened Taliban insurgency that is rapidly moving beyond its sanctuaries in the tribal regions of Pakistan and reaching into other parts of the country.
<b>Maulvi Umar, a Taliban spokesman, was quoted in the Pakistani media as saying that the dual attacks Thursday were a response to the continuing military operation against militants in Bajaur tribal district. He warned of more attacks across the country.
In an attack within Pakistanâs tribal region on Tuesday, for which the Taliban claimed responsibility, a suicide bomber ripped into the emergency room of the district hospital in a town near Waziristan, killing 32 people and wounding 55.</b>
The previous highest death toll was 55 people killed in Kurram in the tribal areas in February when a suicide bomber blew himself in front of a polling place two days before the parliamentary elections, according to a tally by the daily newspaper, Dawn.
Unlike Mr. Musharraf â who was a ready if not always effective ally of the United States in its war on terror â the new elected coalition has so far been unwilling or unable to confront the expanding Taliban insurgency, which seems determined to topple the government.
The United States has publicly complained that Pakistan is not doing enough to combat the militants and to stop them from crossing the border into Afghanistan.
In a statement Thursday, Asif Ali Zardari, one of the leaders of the coalition, condemned the attacks as âdespicable and cowardly.â Mr. Zardari, who is among the leading candidates to succeed Mr. Musharraf, said the attack would âonly strengthen the resolve of the coalition and the people of Pakistan to fight militancy and terrorism.â
According to Agence France-Presse, the ordnance plant at Wah is a compound of about 20 factory buildings where artillery, tank and antiaircraft ammunition for the Pakistani armed forces is made; it employs more than 25,000 workers. Security is tight at the compound, and it appears that the attackers were unable to gain entry inside the plant.
âHad they been able to get inside, the destruction would have been unimaginable,â said Ikram Sehgal, a defense analyst based in Karachi.. But for Pakistan, the Taliban threat is becoming increasingly a domestic one. <b>In the past month, for example, more than 130 girlsâ schools have been burned by the Taliban in the region of Swat alone, and in the past two weeks there have been daily casualties in clashes in the tribal areas between the insurgents and the military.</b>
(Missionary flash: "Pakjabi Oryans oppressing the tribal Dravidioids in TSP" - surprised the christolying missionaries didn't bring this one up yet.)
Many of the <b>60 suicide bomb attacks last year</b>, and indeed, the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in December, have been attributed to the Pakistani Taliban.
Salman Masood reported from Islamabad, Pakistan, and Graham Bowley from New York.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->