Seven soldiers killed in Pakistan rocket attack

Attackers fired rockets at a military post in a Pakistani tribal region near Afghanistan, killing seven soldiers and injuring two others, officials said today.

The attack by unidentified assailants on a mountaintop military post in Sarbandki village began around midnight and continued intermittently until shortly before dawn today. Sarbandki is east of Miran Shah, the main town in the North Waziristan tribal region.

It was the latest in a spate of violence that has wracked the region, a rugged mountainous area bordering Afghanistan. At least three attacks have been launched since Saturday, including a purported air strike on a house owned by a local cleric that left eight dead.

A senior security official said seven soldiers were killed and two were injured in the most recent violence.

The official said both army troops and border guards were at the checkpoint, but their total number was not known.

The injured were taken to a hospital in Bannu, a town on the edge of North Waziristan, another security official said.

Officials have blamed previous attacks on “miscreants” – a term used to describe militants operating in the area, where many al-Qaida-linked militants are believed to have sought refuge.

Pakistan has placed about 70,000 troops and paramilitary forces along its border with Afghanistan to weed out alleged al-Qaida and Taliban sympathisers and extremists.

Earlier yesterday, assailants had fired rockets at a security checkpoint and exchanged fire with troops west of Miran Shah, injuring three. That attack happened just three days after eight soldiers were ambushed and killed in an assault on another checkpoint.

The attack on the cleric’s home on Saturday was blamed on US troops, and residents claimed to have seen an aircraft hovering over the area. Pakistan said the home was fired upon from across the border in Afghanistan.

It prompted a protest by Pakistan to the US military, and Islamabad is still trying the ascertain whether US troops were involved in the attack.

Security officials have said hundreds of Arab, Central Asian and Afghan militants – allegedly linked with al-Qaida – are in North and the adjoining South Waziristan, both tribal regions bordering Afghanistan.

Last month, a senior al-Qaida suspect from Egypt, Hamza Rabia, was killed in the area. Pakistan denied residents’ claims that he died in a US missile strike.