Militants Stage Deadly Attacks on Pakistani Army Base and Health Centre

Two militant attacks in northwest Pakistan killed 28, including soldiers, health workers, and children. The assaults on a military base and health centre underscore rising Islamist militancy near the Afghan border. The area is known for violence, prompting a Pakistani counter-insurgency response.

Two separate attacks by militants on an army base and a health centre in northwest Pakistan killed 28 people, including 10 soldiers as well as female health workers and children, the military said on Tuesday. Both attacks occurred on Monday, coinciding with a resurgence of Islamist militancy in the northwest border region with Afghanistan, which last month prompted the government to start a counter-insurgency operation in the area.

In the first incident, Islamist militants targeted a military base in northwestern Pakistan, killing eight security personnel after a suicide bomber rammed a vehicle loaded with explosives into a perimeter wall. Militants attacked the base in Bannu, near the tribal area of North Waziristan, a known Islamist militancy hotbed close to the Afghanistan border. All 10 assailants were killed by security forces, the military stated.

'This timely and effective response...prevented major catastrophe, saving precious innocent lives,' the statement added. Among the dead in Monday's attack were seven army soldiers and one paramilitary soldier.

The British colonial-era military base, historically used for anti-militant operations, is surrounded by civilian dwellings. The initial blast was used to breach the perimeter wall, allowing other militants to enter, two local officials told Reuters. The attack was claimed by the Hafiz Gul Bahadur Group, operating from neighbouring Afghanistan, the military said. A Taliban administration spokesman did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Islamabad has repeatedly raised the issue of cross-border attacks with the Taliban administration, which denies allowing Afghan soil to be used for these attacks. This has led to clashes between the border forces of the two countries. The militant group involved in the latest attack was the same one targeted by Pakistan in a rare cross border operation.

'Pakistan Armed Forces will...take all necessary measures as deemed appropriate against these threats emanating from Afghanistan,' the military said on Tuesday. In a separate attack late Monday night, five civilians, including two female health workers and two children, were killed in an attack on a health facility in the Dera Ismail Khan district. Two soldiers and all three militants were killed in subsequent clashes, the military reported. No group has claimed responsibility for the second attack.