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Pakistan attack on 'militant chief' Nabi Hanafi kills many | |
(about 1 hour later) | |
At least 12 people have been killed in a suicide bomb attack on a militant commander's compound in a north-west Pakistani tribal region, officials say. | |
Reports said the commander, Nabi Hanafi, had been fighting a branch of the Pakistani Taliban (TTP). It is unclear if he is among the dead. | |
The Taliban have said they were behind the attack in Buland Khel in a remote mountainous area of North Waziristan. | |
Officials said a suicide bomber drove a vehicle into the compound. | Officials said a suicide bomber drove a vehicle into the compound. |
Several other people were injured in the attack. Mullah Hanafi is from Orakzai tribal area. The semi-autonomous tribal areas, bordering Afghanistan, are a stronghold for Pakistani Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked militants. | |
It is still not clear if Mullah Hanafi was hit in the attack, or whether he was even in the compound at all. | |
Local government administrator Wajid Khan told the Associated Press that Hanafi had been off base at the time of the attack. | |
Division over talks | Division over talks |
Nabi Hanafi had once been associated with the Pakistani Taliban but later switched sides and began to fight them with his own militia. | |
There are reports that the Pakistani government had provided some support to his group as part of its strategy of trying to counter the threat posed by the TTP. | |
The attack comes against a backdrop of apparent rifts within the ranks of the Pakistani Taliban over an offer of talks by new Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. | |
There are dozens of militant groups operating under the banner of the TTP. | |
All have sanctuaries in the tribal areas near Peshawar in the north-west - some favour talks, while others do not, correspondents say. | |
Peshawar, the main city of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has been hit by a series of recent bomb attacks, some claimed by - others blamed on - Taliban insurgents. |