Local official says Pakistan military is shelling Taliban in northwestern Bannu district

October 12th, 2009 Explosion rocks NW Pakistan, casualties fearedPESHAWAR, Pakistan — Pakistani police say an explosion has rocked a market in a northwest district next to the troubled Swat Valley. Police official Tahir Khan says casualties are feared in the Monday blast, which may have been a car bombing.

October 12th, 2009 Explosion in northwest Pakistan kills 7PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Seven people are dead after an explosion in a district next to the troubled Swat Valley. Local Mayor Bakhte Alam says many more are wounded in the Monday blast in a Shangla district market.

September 26th, 2009 Police: 2nd bomb goes off in Pakistan's northwestPESHAWAR, Pakistan — Police say a car bomb has detonated in a commercial district in Pakistan's main northwestern city, killing four people and wounding dozens of others. It was the second suicide car bombing to hit the restive region on Saturday.

September 24th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Suspected Islamist militants targeted a group of pro-government tribesmen near Pakistan's northwestern Bannu town Thursday, triggering a gunfight that left at least 18 people dead, police and intelligence officials said. Gunmen ambushed two vehicles carrying members of a tribal militia, including a few prominent chieftains, as they travelled through the Janikhel area bordering the country's lawless tribal region.

September 7th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - At least five soldiers and 10 Taliban militants were killed Monday in two separate incidents of violence in Pakistan's northwestern tribal region that borders Afghanistan, security officials said. A roadside bomb struck a military convoy near Wana, the main town in the Taliban heartland of South Waziristan tribal district.

August 3rd, 2009 PESHAWAR - At least five militants were killed Monday when Pakistani fighter jets bombed Taliban hideouts in the northwestern part of the country, a media report said. Fighter jets bombed rebel hideouts in Doog Darra town near the restive Swat Valley following intelligence reports that a large number of militants had gathered in the area, military spokesman Major Nasir Ali Khan said.

July 20th, 2009 Pakistan: 5 security officers killed in northwestPESHAWAR, Pakistan — Gunmen ambushed a police patrol in Pakistan's volatile northwest Monday, killing four officers while a roadside bomb killed a member of another security unit elsewhere in the region. Two officers died during the ambush on the outskirts of Peshawar city early Monday, while two others died later at a hospital from multiple bullet wounds, senior police official Nisar Khan said.

June 22nd, 2009 Pakistan launches airstrikes after bases attackedISLAMABAD — Militants used mortars, rockets and an anti-aircraft gun to attack military positions in northwestern Pakistan on Monday and were pummeled in response by airstrikes that killed at least 25 people, officials said. It was the latest violence to break out in the tribal region on the Afghan border ahead of a major military offensive against Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, who is accused of ordering a campaign of suicide attacks as part of an insurgency to destabilize the government.

June 18th, 2009 Suspected US missile strikes in Pakistan kill 5ISLAMABAD — Government officials say five people are dead after suspected U.S. missile strikes hit the hide-outs of a Taliban commander in northwestern Pakistan.

June 14th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Fighter jets and helicopter gunships were pressed into action as Pakistani security forces killed at least 35 Taliban in the country's restive northwest Sunday, the military said. The fighting in the Bannu district of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) came even as the security forces were consolidated their hold in Swat and two other districts to the north where the military is engaged in a major anti-Taliban operation that entered its 49th day Sunday.

June 10th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - After making considerable headway against the Taliban in three districts of the country's troubled northwest, the military has opened up another front in the Bannu district, killing some 70 militants in two days of fighting. Quoting sources, Geo TV said more than 70 militants have been killed during two days of operation in Bannu's Baka Khel and Jani Khel areas.

June 4th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - More than 40 cadets and staff members from an army-run college who were in Taliban captivity for three days in Pakistan's troubled north-west have been released, the military said Thursday. "Forty-six students and two teachers are now in the custody of the security forces," said Major General Athar Abbas, chief military spokesman.

June 2nd, 2009 MIRANSHAH - Students and staff of Pakistan's Razmak Cadet College, who were kidnapped on Monday by Taliban militants in Bannu region, have been rescued, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) spokesman has said. The News quoted Sardar Abbas, Commissioner of Bannu region, as saying that the army and the Frontier Corps launched a joint operation 20 kilometre east of Razmak in Garium, and rescued at least 71 students and nine staff members of the cadet college.

May 10th, 2009 Petraeus: Taliban threaten existence of PakistanWASHINGTON — The head of the U.S. Central Command says Taliban militants are a "true threat" to the existence of Pakistan.

May 5th, 2009 Police say car bomber kills 4 troops in PakistanPESHAWAR — A suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden car into a vehicle carrying paramilitary forces in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, killing at least four troops and wounding several people, including schoolchildren, police said. The attack happened near a checkpoint on the outskirts of Peshawar, the provincial capital of the volative North West Frontier Province, where the military last week launched an offensive against Taliban militants to halt their push toward the capital, Islamabad.