4 Pakistani troops killed in hunt for Boyle family abductors
A roadside bomb has hit a convoy of Pakistani troops in the restive tribal belt near the Afghan border while they were searching for militants who held an American-Canadian family before they were rescued last week.
The Pakistani military said Sunday that four soldiers were killed and three others were wounded when the bomb went off earlier in the day on a mountainous route in the Kurram region.
“Four security force troops including a captain embraced shahadat (martyrdom) while three others sustained injuries when an improvised explosive device went off,” said the military in a statement, adding, “The troops were part of a search party for handlers of the rescued foreigners.”
The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. Authorities, speaking on condition of anonymity, said three bombs went off in the area.
Kurram was the scene of an operation on Wednesday in which Joshua Boyle, a Canadian national, was freed along with his American wife and three children after five years of captivity. The couple had been abducted in October 2012 in the Taliban-dominated regions of Afghanistan but US authorities later relayed intelligence to Pakistan showing that they were in the hands of the notorious Haqqani network.
Boyle said upon arriving in Toronto, Canada, that kidnappers had murdered his infant daughter and raped her wife, Caitlan Coleman. The couple’s three children were all born during the captivity.
The United States has blacklisted the Haqqani network while accusing elements in the powerful Pakistani army of having links to the group. The network is headed by Sirajuddin Haqqani, who also acts as a senior member of the Taliban leadership in Afghanistan.
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