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10 dead in attack on Pak army convoy

General narrowly escapes death

REUTERS, Karachi
A Pakistani army commander narrowly escaped assassination yesterday when a gun and bomb attack on his convoy killed 10 people, in what officials saw as a response to a bloody assault on militants near the Afghan border.
Gunmen ambushed a convoy escorting Karachi army corps commander Lieutenant-General Ahsan Saleem Hayat on a main road in Karachi, but he went on to attend a provincial government meeting, police and army officials said.
"It is a terrorist attack aimed at destabilizing the country," Army spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan said.
Hayat's driver was among those killed after gunfire hit at least two cars in the convoy.
Police said at least three or four gunmen, who appeared highly trained, escaped in a car abandoned about 10 km (six miles) from the attack. They said they found a
Kalashnikov rife, empty shells and a mask inside the car.
"It was a well-planned ambush," a senior military officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The attack came just six months after the army chief and president, General Pervez Musharraf, narrowly escaped two similar assassinations attempts blamed on al-Qaeda-linked militants enraged by his decision to back Washington after the September 11 attacks in 2001.
Emergency workers said the dead were six soldiers, three policemen and a civilian. Eight people were wounded.
Sultan said most of those killed were part of the general's escort detail and were shot, along with some bystanders.
"There was a bomb, a crude kind of explosive device, but I don't think there were any casualties because of that," he said.
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Hayat is one of nine corps commanders in Pakistan, and Karachi -- hit by suicide bombings and religious strife that has killed dozens over the past two years -- is one of the country's key commands.
Islamic militants have staged a series of bloody attacks in Pakistan since 2001 -- many of them in
Karachi -- but taking on the powerful army suggests they are becoming bolder.
"They are well equipped, they have the modern technology, there is no doubt about it," Sultan said.
Yesterday's attack coincided with renewed fighting this week between the military and al Qaeda-linked militants near Wana, capital of a remote tribal region bordering Afghanistan, and underscores the difficulty Musharraf faces as a key ally in the U.S.-led "war on terror."
Pakistan has said that up to 600 foreign militants, including Arabs, Chechens and Uzbeks linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, have been hiding out in tribal areas close to the Afghan border protected by local tribesmen.
The military said 20 militants were killed in the clashes near the mountain town of Wana that started on Wednesday, many of them foreigners, including Chechens and Uzbeks.
A security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said at least 15 security personnel had been killed, but the military declined to confirm this.
"It looks like a fallout of the Wana operation," the senior military official said. "It looks very bad."
Militants fired more rockets that landed near Wana on Thursday morning. The military responded with artillery fire, but there were no additional casualty reports.