NEW on Dr. Aafia & UPDATED items from the "war on terror" - Pakistan/Afghanistan

TIRAH VALLEY
"In what may well be the deadliest single incident of violence against civilians in the Tirah Valley in nearly 400 years..." (Now that is quite a statement for one of thousands of such articles!!...How many historians are noticing? CLN blogger here)
Photo and quote courtesy of Anti-war dot com and article by Jason Ditz

This is an Associated Press photo just out on the recent Quetta killings allegedly due to a suicide bomb. The wounded were evidently near a hospital.

During this same period of time, also note the enormous cost in terms of life by the Pakistan Military (not unlike similar "blunders" or detrimentally aggressive actions
by the US and Israeli military in recent years and even months since Obama took office.

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Looking for the brief item on Dr. Siddiqui? Look below in this post.

Looking for items on the Peoples Resistance Protest of Civilian Killings? Plz go to the several posts below this one...which include links to Teeth Maestro and many photos of that very recent event at the Karachi Press Club (KPC)

Here is that striking "earlier" story on the Khyber bombing (which some of you may want to file since it's not as available today as yesterday:

At Least 70 Civilians Killed as Pakistani Jets Bomb Khyber
By Jason Ditz April 11, 2010 @ 3:39 pm originally posted at antiwar dot com

In what may well be the deadliest single incident of violence against civilians in the Tirah Valley in nearly 400 years, Pakistani military jets bombed a village in the Jamrud Tehsil of the Khyber Agency portion of the valley, killing at least 70 civilians and wounding some 50 others.

Pakistani military officials were quick to deny the toll, and claimed in the state media that they were targeting “militants” who were massing to attack a military checkpoint.

But local officials said the real story, as it so often is in Pakistan’s tribal areas, was quite different. They reported that the jets bombed a home in the village, killing three children and two women who were inside, and laborers working on a nearby water channel massed in an attempt to rescue anyone who might be trapped inside.

This was when the bulk of the casualties occured, including one of the tribal elders of the region, as the jets came back and bombarded the rescuers, killing and injuring a large number of them. The house that was initially attacked belonged to a member of the Pakistani Army, who expressed “surprise” to learn that his house had been bombed and then dismissed as a “militant hideout.”

Article printed from News From Antiwar.com: http://news.antiwar.com

(LOOKING for the related Press Releases on the Protest of the Civilian Killings by Pakistan Citizen groups? GO ONE POST DOWN)

Latest in on Dr. Aafia Siddiqui Friday April 16, 2010: Court no longer considers her a "missing person" - urges taking up the case with US - GO here

SHOCKING DRONE STATS - percentage of civilian killings: Some stats unknown or ignored by much of global press today - by a notable and respected blogger/writer of Asian news and commentar-y - GO here

NOTE from
Oneheart blogger

Isn't it time to address ALL crimes against humanity- particularly in this Afghanistan-Pakistan part of the world right now? We know from history - even recent history - that occupations unprovoked (for which actual reasons have yet to be given their REAL name) have made cooperation between those who seek the peoples good much worse.

We see that hiding and covering up crimes -- excuses flippantly offered followed by admission when caught then the weakest of apologies are often continuing without letup. In fact, these are leading to gross and mushrooming evils of all kinds. We are bound to excise these acts -- many called war crimes by our own US Army field manual as well as by the international documents to which we've signed on.

IF NOT, by what standard will we as US/Nato/Pakistan Military "rid world of terrorism" when such strategies and acts daily beckon that same label "terrorists" from the people we pretend to help to/for the state sanctioned perpetrators?

Thus these who claim to "protect the people" are in many instances not only NOT helping efforts to provide security yet in many situations truly making matters much worse. Where is there accountability to the people and to the international documents for human decency?

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April 16, 2010

Pakistani journalists mourn a death of their colleague in Quetta, Pakistan on Friday, April 16, 2010. A suicide bomber attacked a hospital emergency room where Shiite Muslims were mourning a slain bank manager on Friday, killing eight people including a journalist and two policemen in Pakistan's main southwest city, police said. Photo from Associated Press QUETTA, Pakistan April 16, 2010, 07:49 am ET

A suicide bomber attacked a hospital emergency room where Shiite Muslims were mourning a slain bank manager on Friday, killing eight people including a journalist and two policemen in Pakistan's main southwestern city, police said.

A suspected U.S. missile strike, meanwhile, killed four alleged militants in the country's northwestern tribal belt, officials said.

The explosion in Quetta underscored the poor security conditions in Pakistan, a U.S. ally where sectarian violence remains a problem even as al-Qaida and Taliban militants pose a growing -- and linked -- threat. It wasn't the first time that Shiite mourners have been attacked at hospitals in Pakistan, evidence of a tactic in vogue for their Sunni extremist foes.

Gunshots rang out after the explosion at the Civil Hospital, and rescuers carried away the dead and wounded, TV footage showed.

Among the dead was a cameraman working for Pakistan's Samaa TV, said Saifuddin Khan, a hospital official. Two policemen also died, while 35 people were wounded in the apparent "sectarian attack," said Qazi Abdul Wahid, a senior police investigator.

Journalists were at the hospital covering the aftermath of Friday morning's shooting of the bank manager, who came from a prominent Shiite family. A gunman shot him as he stepped out of his car outside the bank on a major city road, officials said.

The emergency room was full of his friends and relatives when the bomber struck at the gate, police official Mohammad Sabir said.

Quetta is the capital of Baluchistan province, and it is believed to be a major center for the leadership of the Afghan Taliban. However, the violence that occurs in Baluchistan has been blamed on Baluch separatist groups or tensions between Sunni and Shiite Muslims.

In February, suspected Sunni militants bombed a bus carrying Shiite worshippers and two hours later attacked a hospital treating the victims, killing 25 people and wounding 100 in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi.

And in August 2008, a suicide blast outside the emergency ward of a hospital crowded with Shiite Muslim mourners in the volatile northwest town of Dera Ismail Khan killed at least 27 people, including two police.

Suspected Sunni extremists also have attacked funeral processions of Shiite Muslim mourners.

Extremist Sunnis and Shiites in Pakistan have targeted each other's leaders in violence that dates well before the 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States. But several of Pakistan's Sunni extremist groups also are allied with the Taliban and al-Qaida, who view Shiites as infidels.

The Sunni-Shiite schism over the true heir to Islam's Prophet Muhammad dates to the seventh century.

The alleged missile strike took place in the Toorkhel area in North Waziristan, a tribal region filled with al-Qaida and Taliban fighters focused on attacking U.S. and NATO troops across the border in Afghanistan.

At least four suspected militants were killed, said Noor Ahmad, a government official, and two intelligence officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record.

The exact identities of the dead were not immediately known.

The U.S. has frequently targeted North Waziristan in its campaign to kill al-Qaida and Taliban leaders using missiles. Washington rarely discusses the covert assassination program. Pakistan publicly protests the missile attacks as violations of its sovereignty but is widely believed to secretly aid them.
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