Bomb kills women, child in Khyber

PESHAWAR: Officials say two women and a child were killed on Wednesday when a bomb ripped through their vehicle in the country’s Taliban and al Qaeda infested tribal belt on the Afghan border. The blast took place on the outskirts of Bara, a restive town of Khyber district bordering Afghanistan, where US-led foreign and Afghan troops are fighting against a 10-year Taliban insurgency. “At least two women and a child were killed and five others were wounded in a bomb blast,” Khyber’s administrator Mutahir Zeb Khan told AFP. The bomb was planted on the roadside and detonated remotely as the pick-up vehicle carrying the passengers passed, he said. The target was unclear. Nobody claimed responsibility for the attack, but similar bombings in the past have been blamed on terrorists linked to the Taliban. Last October, some 18,000 people fled their homes in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where Pakistani troops have been fighting terrorists tied to the Taliban. A covert US drone programme routinely targets militants in Pakistan’s tribal belt, rife with homegrown insurgents, Taliban and al Qaeda operatives. Terrorists have killed more than 4,800 people across Pakistan since July 2007. afp

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