The government's bid to root out militants from the Waziristan region opens a second front in its war against the Taliban, following an offensive in the Swat Valley and surrounding districts in April. Authorities launched that assault after Taliban leaders there had reneged on a peace deal.
Pakistani military leaders assert that they have cleared most of the Swat, Buner and Dir districts of militants, though top Taliban leaders in Swat are still at large. Military officials said this week that they bombed what they believed was a hide-out being used by Swat Taliban leader Maulana Qazi Fazlullah, but they have been unable to determine the results of that attack.
As the Pakistani government presses ahead with its bid to flush out the Taliban, it has been unable to thwart a series of retaliatory suicide bombings across the country's heartland. The latest occurred Thursday in Rawalpindi, the heart of the nation's military community, when a bomber rammed his motorcycle into a bus carrying workers from a nuclear facility, injuring at least 29 people.
In another development Friday, authorities were investigating the cause of a crash of a Pakistani military transport helicopter that killed 26 security personnel. The helicopter went down about 12 miles from the northwestern city of Peshawar.
Pakistani military officials told local reporters that the crash appeared to be caused by a technical problem, but they were continuing to investigate.
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alex.rodriguez@latimes.com
Special correspondent Zulfiqar Ali in Peshawar contributed to this report.
