Pakistan/Afghanistan

Suicide attacks on both sides of troubled border

Article published on the 2008-11-17 Latest update 2008-11-17 14:35 TU

A Nato supply truck crosses the Afghan border.
(Photo: Reuters)

Three Pakistani soldiers were killed when a suicide bomber attacked a roadblock in the Swat region in northwestern Pakistan. According to army reports, the bomber drove his explosive-laden car into a checkpoint in a region that was until recently a popular tourist ski destination.

Meanwhile, across the border in Afghanistan, another suicide bomber,  dressed in a police uniform, killed two policemen and a civilian at the entrance to a government compound in Dand district, adjacent to Kandahar. The attacker was stopped for a body-search at the entrance to the compound and did not succeed in entering, but did damage the entrance during the killing.

Yet amid the continuing violence, there were some glimmers of improvement for the two countries, whose fates have been tied since the American-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 that pushed many Taliban fighters into the tribal regions that straddle the Pakistani border.

For Afghanistan, Nato trucks carrying fuel and food aid were allowed to leave Pakistan and rumble into the Khyber Pass, where Taliban militants had hijacked 15 of them last week. Pakistan closed the border as a result and opened it today only after assuring heavily-armed escorts for the convoys.

The increased security will also include manned checkpoints in an effort to battle Taliban raids that the World Food Programme says have cost 664,000 euros in stolen and destroyed shipments since the beginning of the year.

Pakistan’s precarious financial situation is one step closer to being resolved as a group of potential international donors met in Abu Dhabi to discuss rescue options. The “Friends of Pakistan” conference brought together 14 countries and hoped to improve upon the 6 billion euro emergency loan announced by the International Monetary Fund over the weekend.