Militants kill 17 Pakistani soldiers in ambush of convoy

The Baltimore Sun

PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- Militants in Pakistan's restive tribal region kept up their pressure on government forces yesterday with an ambush of a military convoy that killed 17 soldiers, authorities said.

The attack in the North Waziristan region was the latest in an upsurge of bloodletting that has left more than 100 people dead in the past six days and poses a severe challenge to the rule of Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf.

Musharraf, whom the U.S. considers a key ally in the battle against Islamic terrorism, called on Pakistanis to support him in rooting out extremists, whom he blamed for a suicide bombing in the capital, Islamabad, on Tuesday. At least 16 people were killed in that assault.

"If suicide attacks continue, then we are in for some serious trouble. This is the time to go after them," Musharraf told a group of newspaper editors yesterday.

He warned that intelligence reports suggested more attacks are imminent.

The ambush on troops in the northwest came days after tribal leaders in North Waziristan, a rugged and lawless region full of suspected Taliban and al-Qaida operatives, renounced a 10-month-old cease-fire agreement with the government.

Islamic militants in the area vowed to exact revenge for Musharraf's decision last week to storm the Lal Masjid in Islamabad, the Red Mosque from which militants had mounted a vigilante-style anti-vice campaign. The raid killed more than 100.

Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad, an army spokesman, said militants hit the troop convoy with a remote-controlled bomb about 10:30 a.m. yesterday outside Miram Shah, North Waziristan's main town. In the ensuing chaos, the attackers raked the convoy with gunfire. The assault killed 17 soldiers and wounded 12.

Zulfiqar Ali and Henry Chu write for the Los Angeles Times.

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