MILITANTS KILL 16 IN PAKISTAN
Baku, July 17 (AZERTAC). A suspected sectarian attack on a civilian convoy in a troubled tribal area of Pakistan left 16 people dead.
Several other people were wounded in the ambush in the northwest, where the army has carried out operations against Islamist militants. The convoy, which was being escorted by security forces, was attacked in Char Khel village in the Kurram region. All those killed were Shia Muslims, according to local officials, who said the death toll may rise. The convoy was heading to the main regional city of Peshawar when it was ambushed on Saturday in the predominantly Sunni region. The Kurram tribal district has been a flashpoint for violence between the minority Shias and the Sunni community for several years.
Some reports put the number of dead at 18, including two women. The army has reportedly killed nearly 100 militants in operations in the region, close to the Afghan border, in recent months. Several major suicide attacks have hit Pakistan in recent weeks. An attack on Thursday killed at least five people in the Swat Valley, also in northwest. Earlier this month, a pair of suicide bombers blew themselves up in the Mohmand tribal region, killing more than 100 people. The Pakistani government is under US pressure to crack down on the unrest in the border region. The Shia minority accounts for some 20% of Pakistan`s population of 160 million. More than 4,000 people have died as a result of sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shias since the late 1980s.
Other news in this section
