Latest news with #militantattack
Arab News
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Three children among five killed in school bus attack in Pakistan's southwest
KARACHI: The Pakistani military said on Wednesday five people including three children were killed in a militant attack on a school bus in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province, with a government official saying the bus had been en route to an army-run school. Around 40 students were on the bus headed to a military school and several had been injured, Yasir Iqbal, the administrator of Khuzdar district told media. The attack took place in Khuzdar, the military said, blaming 'Indian terror proxies.' 'As per the initial reports, three innocent children and two adults have embraced martyrdom and multiple children have sustained injuries,' the army's statement said. Tensions between nuclear-armed neighbors Pakistan and India are high after they struck a ceasefire on May 10 following the most intense military confrontation in decades. Both countries accuse the other of supporting militancy on each other's soil — a charge both capitals deny. The latest military escalation, in which the two countries traded missile, drones and artillery fire, was sparked after India accused Pakistan of supporting militants who attacked dozens of tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir on April 22, killing 26. Islamabad denies involvement. 'After having miserably failed in the battlefield, through these most heinous and cowardly such like acts [attacking school bus], Indian proxies have been unleashed to spread terror and unrest in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhawa,' the army said, referring to two Pakistani provinces. New Delhi has not yet commented on the accusations. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack but suspicion is likely to fall on separatist groups such as the Balochistan Liberation Army, which in March blew up a railway track and took passengers from a train hostage, killing 31. Southwestern Balochistan is Pakistan's largest province by area, but smallest by population and most impoverished. The region of some 15 million people is home to key mining projects and a deep seaport that China is building, but has been roiled by a decades-old insurgency. 'Targeting innocent children is a barbaric act, those responsible deserve no leniency,' Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said in a statement, describing the attack as a 'vile conspiracy to destabilize the country.' Wednesday's attack was reminiscent of one of the deadliest militant attacks in Pakistan's history when over 130 children were killed in a military school in the northern city of Peshawar in 2014. That attack was claimed by the Pakistani Taliban group. With inputs from Reuters
Malay Mail
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Malay Mail
Blast targeting school bus kills at least four children in Pakistan's Balochistan
QUETTA, May 21 — At least four children were killed by a suicide bomber who targeted an army school bus in Pakistan's restive Balochistan province, a government official said today. 'The bus was on its way to a school in an army cantonment,' said Yasir Iqbal, the administrator of Khuzdar district, where the incident took place. Around 40 students were in the bus that was headed to the army-run school, Iqbal said, adding that several were injured in the incident. Balochistan is Pakistan's largest province by area, but smallest by population. The province of some 15 million people in the southwest of the country is home to key mining projects but has been roiled by a decades-old insurgency. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the blast, which was reminiscent of one of the deadliest militant attacks in Pakistan's history when an attack on a military school in the northern city of Peshawar in 2014 killed more than 130 children. It was claimed by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an ultra-radial Islamist group. Attacks by separatist groups in Balochistan have risen in recent years. The Baloch Liberation Army, a separatist militant group, blew up a railway track and took passengers from a train hostage in March, killing 31. — Reuters
Associated Press
18-05-2025
- Associated Press
Militant attack on 2 villages in northeast Nigeria kills at least 57, witnesses say
ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — A suspected militant attack on two villages in Nigeria left at least 57 people dead and at least 70 missing on Thursday, witnesses said Sunday, in one of the deadliest incidents in the country's conflict-ridden northeast this year. Abdulrahman Ibrahim survived Thursday's attack on two villages in Baga in Borno State and participated in the burial of the dead. He told The Associated Press that the Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati wal-Jihad (JAS) faction of the militant group Boko Haram gathered more than 100 residents of the neighboring villages of Mallam Karamti and Kwatandashi and marched them into the bush. Later on Saturday, 57 bodies were recovered there. A spokesperson for the Borno government said he could not confirm the casualty counts. The Nigerian military did not respond to a request for comment. According to Ibrahim, who is from Mallam Karamti, and another survivor from Kwatandashi who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals, the villagers were accused of acting as informants for the rival Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP). Although ISWAP has gained notoriety for targeting military personnel and assets, the JAS faction has increasingly resorted to attacking civilians and perceived collaborators and thrives on robberies and abductions for ransom. 'Without the capacity to attack the military like ISWAP, JAS is focused on terrorizing civilians,' said Malik Samuel, an expert on northern Nigeria's conflicts with nonprofit Good Governance Africa. The witnesses said burial of the victims was delayed because the military was unavailable to provide support in conducting searches for bodies. Most of the dead victims were found with their throats slit, but others had been shot, the locals said. 'There are probably more bodies because we had to stop further searches with soldiers out of fear of an ambush,' Ibrahim said. More than 70 are still missing, he said. The mass killing came during a week of intensifying violence in Borno. On Monday, ISWAP militants overran the 50 Task Force Battalion of the Nigerian Army stationed in Marte, seizing arms and ammunition after a deadly assault that killed several soldiers, according to videos shared on social media by soldiers who survived the attack. Following the attack on Marte, displaced people camped there fled to nearby Dikwa, a humanitarian hub where aid groups are pulling out due to international funding cuts. In a separate incident on Saturday afternoon, a roadside bomb detonated along the Maiduguri-Damboa road, the second such attack in a week. Three people died at the scene, and a fourth succumbed to injuries Sunday morning at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH). More than 10 others were still being treated for injuries at the hospital, a local resident, Lawan Bukar Maigana, who has assisted the community in emergencies, said. Since 2009, the Boko Haram insurgency has created a humanitarian disaster in Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad, with more than 35,000 people killed and 2.6 million others displaced over the last 15 years. Borno in Nigeria, its birthplace, is the worst-affected. They want to install an Islamic state across the four countries, with Nigeria as their main target. The country is West Africa's oil giant with more than 200 million people, divided almost equally between a mainly Christian south and a predominantly Muslim north. The Nigerian government has claimed progress against the insurgency, but the militants continue to attack civilians and military and have expanded into other regions, including central Nigeria where the capital Abuja is located, according to experts and public records on counterterrorism.
Washington Post
18-05-2025
- Washington Post
Militant attack on 2 villages in northeast Nigeria kills at least 57, witnesses say
ABUJA, Nigeria — A suspected militant attack on two villages in Nigeria left at least 57 people dead and at least 70 missing on Thursday, witnesses said Sunday, in one of the deadliest incidents in the country's conflict-ridden northeast this year. Abdulrahman Ibrahim survived Thursday's attack on two villages in Baga in Borno State and participated in the burial of the dead. He told The Associated Press that the Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati wal-Jihad (JAS) faction of the militant group Boko Haram gathered more than 100 residents of the neighboring villages of Mallam Karamti and Kwatandashi and marched them into the bush. Later on Saturday, 57 bodies were recovered there.
Arab News
14-05-2025
- Arab News
One killed, 10 wounded in grenade attack on pro-army rally in Pakistan
QUETTA: A suspected militant on a motorcycle threw a hand grenade at participants of a pro-army rally in southwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, killing at least one person and wounding 10 others, police and hospital officials said. The attack occurred in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, said local police chief Mohammad Malghani. He said about 150 people in cars and on motorcycles were heading to a hockey ground in the city for a government-organized event to celebrate the military's recent retaliatory strikes inside India when the man threw a grenade at them. Wasim Baig, a spokesman at the Civil Hospital, said at least two of those wounded were in critical condition. No group immediately claimed responsibility, but suspicion is likely to fall on the Baloch Liberation Army, a separatist group that has waged a years-long insurgency in the province. Pro-army rallies have been held across Pakistan since Sunday, when the United States brokered a cease-fire between Pakistan and India, which were engaged in one of their most serious confrontations in decades.
