A Pakistani Taliban suicide bomber rammed a car filled with
explosives into a paramilitary camp in northwestern Pakistan on
Saturday, killing six soldiers in the second attack in as many days
meant to avenge the slaying of a senior commander in a U.S. drone
strike.
The attacks came as Pakistan was gripped by tension
between the army and the civilian government over a secret memo sent to
Washington earlier this year asking for help in reining in the military.
Pakistan's prime minister sought to dial down the conflict Saturday,
days after he set off alarm with a warning of a potential coup.
The
bombing against the Frontier Corps camp in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Bannu
town caused part of a building to collapse and wounded at least 19
soldiers, said local police officer Tahir Khan.
A Pakistani
Taliban spokesman, Ehsanullah Ehsan, claimed responsibility for the
attack in a phone call to The Associated Press. He said it was meant to
avenge the death of commander Taj Gul in a U.S. drone strike in October
in the South Waziristan tribal area, a key sanctuary for the militants.
Gul
was the Pakistani Taliban's operational commander in South Waziristan
and was responsible for many attacks against security forces.
On
Friday, around three dozen Pakistani Taliban fighters armed with assault
rifles attacked a paramilitary camp in Tank district near South
Waziristan before dawn, killing one soldier and kidnapping 15 others.
Ehsan,
the Taliban spokesman, said Friday that attack was also meant to avenge
Gul's death. The militants targeted the soldiers because of Pakistan's
alliance with the United States, he said.
Ehsan pledged they would
kill the kidnapped troops, saying "we are going to cut these soldiers
into pieces one by one, and we will send these pieces to their
commanders."
The Pakistani Taliban has waged a fierce insurgency
in Pakistan over the past four years, killing tens of thousands of
security personnel and civilians. Their aim is to topple the civilian
government, partly because of its alliance with the U.S., and impose
Islamic law throughout the country.
Pakistan has launched a series
of military offensives against the Pakistani Taliban in the northwest
along the Afghan border, including in South Waziristan.
Analysts
say the operations, combined with hundreds of U.S. drone attacks, have
contributed to a significant decline in violence in Pakistan this year.
But militants still carry out attacks almost daily that have killed more
than 2,300 people through November, according to the Pak Institute for
Peace Studies.
The current political crisis in Pakistan threatens to distract the military from its fight against the militants.
The
scandal centers around a memo that was allegedly sent to a senior U.S.
military official in May by Pakistan's ambassador to the U.S. at the
time, Husain Haqqani, asking for help in averting a supposed army coup
in the wake of the American raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
Haqqani
has denied the allegations but resigned in the wake of the scandal.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has also denied claims that he was
connected to the memo.
Tension spiked this past week when
Pakistan's Supreme Court opened a hearing into the scandal and demanded
the president submit a response, which he has so far failed to do. The
government has claimed there is no need for a judicial investigation
since parliament is looking into the matter.
Pakistani Prime
Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani set pulses racing Thursday when he claimed
there was a conspiracy under way to oust the government. He did not
specifically point to the military, but he did say the army must be
answerable to parliament and cannot act as a "state within a state."
Army
chief Gen. Pervez Ashfaq Kayani dismissed the prime minister's
allegations Friday, saying the military had no intention of staging a
coup and would respect the constitution.
Gilani welcomed Kayani's
comments Saturday, saying "the clarification from the army chief
yesterday is extremely well-taken in the democratic circles."
"It will certainly improve the situation," Gilani told reporters in Islamabad.
Analysts
have speculated that the army may try to force Zardari out of office
over the memo scandal, rather than actually stage a coup.
Kayani
said Friday that talk of a military takeover was a distraction from
"real issues," a comment perceived by some to apply to the president's
alleged role in the scandal. AP
