Suicide attacks in Pakistan kill 80; Taliban claim bin Laden revenge
The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility Friday for suicide attacks on a military training facility in the nation's northwest, saying they were in retaliation for the killing of terror leader Osama bin Laden.
The twin suicide bombings killed at least 80 people, nearly all of them military recruits who had just completed their training, said Bashir Ahmad Bilour, a senior provincial minister. About 140 others were injured.
"Pakistani and the U.S. forces should be ready for more attacks," said Ihsan Ullah Ihsan, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, who accused the Pakistani military of telling the United States where bin Laden was.
Read the full storyOfficials: Three killed in drone strike in Pakistan
A suspected U.S. drone strike killed three people Thursday in Pakistan's tribal region, intelligence officials said.
The victims were suspected militants, the officials said.
The missiles struck their vehicle as they were traveling in the Datta Khel area of North Waziristan, one of the seven districts of Pakistan's volatile tribal region bordering Afghanistan.
Thursday's suspected drone strike was the 23rd this year compared with 111 in all of 2010, according to a CNN tally.
Pakistan and the war on terror
Another suspected U.S. drone strike killed three alleged militants Tuesday when two missiles struck a vehicle in South Waziristan.
The United States does not comment on suspected drone strikes. But it is the only country in the region known to have the ability to launch missiles from drones, which are controlled remotely.
Suspected U.S. drone strike kills 3 in Pakistan, officials say
A suspected U.S. drone strike killed three alleged militants in Pakistan's tribal region Tuesday, intelligence officials in Pakistan said.
The suspected drone fired two missiles on a vehicle believed to be carrying militants in the area of Angoor Adda of South Waziristan, one of the seven districts of Pakistan's volatile tribal region bordering Afghanistan, two intelligence officials said.
It was the 22nd suspected U.S. drone strike in Pakistan this year, compared with 111 in all of 2010, according to a CNN count.
The intelligence officials asked not be named because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Pakistan reacts angrily to tone of U.S. questions
The United States is pressing Pakistani authorities for answers about how Osama bin Laden could have lived close to a major military base near Pakistan's capital without the government knowing, two senior U.S. officials said Wednesday.
The al Qaeda leader was living in a walled compound in Abbottabad, about 50 km (31 miles) north of Islamabad, when he was gunned down by American commandos in a pre-dawn raid Monday. The killing has left Pakistani officials facing sharp questions from Washington - and in some cases, from their own people - and exacerbated an already rocky relationship between the two nations.
Read the full storyPakistan dismayed at U.S. claim it was lax on bin Laden intelligence
Pakistan reacted with dismay Wednesday at CIA director Leon Panetta's assertion that it had not done enough to bring Osama bin Laden to justice, saying there is now "total mistrust" between the United States and Pakistan.
A senior Pakistani intelligence official was reacting to reports that Panetta had told House members Tuesday that Pakistan's role in determining bin Laden's whereabouts was troubling.
According to two sources in a closed door briefing, Panetta told lawmakers "either they were involved or incompetent. Neither place is a good place to be."
Read the full storyAnalysis: Who's going to replace bin Laden?
The killing of Osama bin Laden is "an enormously significant moment in the fight against al Qaeda terrorism," and there is no one poised to take his place as the group's leader, says CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank.
Osama bin Laden killed in Pakistan; Karzai reacts
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said he hopes the world believes that his country is "not the place of terrorism" after the announcement that the al Qaeda leader was killed in neighboring Pakistan.
"If the international troops/forces are true allies of the Afghans - they should come out and say that the killing of Afghans, children and elders which took place over the many years on a daily basis was not a good idea," Karzai said Monday on state television.
Bin Laden eluded capture for years, once reportedly slipping out of a training camp in Afghanistan just hours before a barrage of U.S. cruise missiles destroyed it.
Prior to masterminding the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, bin Laden had been implicated in a series of deadly, high-profile attacks that had grown in their intensity and success during the 1990s. They included a deadly firefight with U.S. soldiers in Somalia in October 1993, the bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa that killed 224 in August 1998, and an attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 sailors in October 2000.
In his speech, Obama reiterated that the United States is not fighting Islam.
"I've made clear, just as President Bush did shortly after 9/11, that our war is not against Islam. Bin Laden was not a Muslim leader; he was a mass murderer of Muslims," Obama said.
Pakistan pressures the U.S.
Pakistan positions itself for a U.S. pullout from Afghanistan. CNN's Chris Lawrence reports.
Two tankers carrying fuel for U.S., NATO troops destroyed
Militants in Pakistan's southwestern province of Balochistan torched two tankers carrying fuel for U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, a police official said.
Abdul Aziz Bangulzai said armed militants initially opened fire on tankers and then set them on fire in the Bolan district.
"Four militants on two motorcycles attacked (the) NATO supply and managed to escape from the spot," Bangulzai said.
He said no one was injured, but the tankers were destroyed.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but militants in the region have frequently targeted Pakistani security forces and supply trucks headed for Afghanistan in an effort to undermine U.S. and NATO efforts there. More than half of the supplies for NATO forces in Afghanistan travels through Pakistan.
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Soldiers mistakenly kill themselves in Pakistan
Fourteen Pakistani soldiers were killed when they fired a mortar to try and repel a group of militants but accidentally hit themselves, a government official said.
The incident occurred when the soldiers were traveling in a convoy of three vehicles Monday night near the village of Akakhel in Khyber Agency, said Roshan Khan, a government official in the agency.
Miltants fired on the convoy with machine guns and a soldier responded by firing a mortar. Somehow the mortar landed among the soldiers, killing them, Khan said.
Khyber Agency, 24 kilometers (14 miles) west of Peshawar, is the capital of northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and is considered a hub for militants.
Khyber Agency also is one of the main supply routes for the U.S.-led coalition forces operating in Afghanistan and militants frequently attack NATO supply trucks in the region.
