Pak militants attack anti-Taliban elders: police

Militants in Pakistan on Sunday stormed the homes of two anti-Taliban elders, killing one of them, police said, as the death toll from a bomb in the northwestern city of Peshawar rose to 15.

The northwestern capital on the fringes of a lawless tribal belt has been hit by four suicide bombings in a week, as the military presses on with a major offensive against Taliban fighters in nearby mountain strongholds.

In Saturday's attack in Peshawar, a man detonated a cache of explosives as police tried to stop and search his car at a checkpoint. Local officials said four people including a child died overnight, taking the death toll to 15.

Violence continued to plague the area Sunday, when about 50 militants with the banned Lashkar-e-Islam extremist group set upon the home of Fahimuddin, a local mayor who had raised a militia to fight the Taliban.

Fahimuddin told AFP that some of his would-be assassins were disguised in the all-enveloping burqa garments worn by conservative Muslim women when they approached his home in Bazid Khel village on Peshawar's outskirts.

"There were around 50 attackers. Three of them wearing burqas managed to reach near my house. My men stopped them and asked for identification but they started firing after flinging off the burqas," said Fahimuddin, who goes by one name only.

"It is 100 percent sure that these people came to kill me. They left behind grenades and Kalashnikovs," he said.

Karim Khan, a senior police official in Peshawar, confirmed the attack and said three militants were killed in the clash with Fahimuddin's militia. The rest of the insurgents fled the scene.

Lashkar-e-Islam (Army of Islam), which has loose ties to the feared Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) movement, enforces prayers five times a day and punishes people accused of prostitution, gambling and other vices.

Later Sunday in the nearby district of Bajaur, dozens of Taliban rebels raided the home of pro-government tribal elder Malik Sher Zaman -- who had also formed a militia -- killing him at his residence in Mamond town.

"He was shot dead and his house was blown up by the Taliban," said Adalat Khan, the local administrative official. Zaman's wife and child were in the house but managed to escape.

"The Taliban also fired 30 rockets at various locations (in Bajaur)," Khan said, adding that there were no casualties in those attacks.

The TTP have claimed responsibility for Saturday's suicide car bombing and a brazen attack on the Peshawar headquarters of the nation's top intelligence agency, the ISI, on Friday that killed 17 people.

The militia has vowed further attacks to avenge the assault on its South Waziristan stronghold, where 30,000 troops backed by fighter jets and helicopters have been battling since mid-October to crush the Islamist threat.

Pakistan is pursuing multiple offensives against Islamist insurgents. It began with a spring assault against Taliban fighters in and around Swat valley and moved against Lashkar-e-Islam in the Khyber area in September.

The most ambitious offensive aims to crush the TTP leadership in South Waziristan, an operation which has the strong support of the United States, which fears Al-Qaeda operatives are also active in the tribal belt.

The military said Sunday that five militants had been killed in South Waziristan in the last 24 hours of fighting.

But a string of retaliatory attacks have struck Pakistan hard, with bombings taking place every week and killing more than 450 people -- most of them in Peshawar -- since early October.

Pakistan has also been dishing out weapons, money and ammunition to allied tribesmen and elders and encouraging them to raise militia against insurgents, but they are increasingly being targeted by the rebels.

A suicide bombing last Sunday near Peshawar killed anti-Taliban mayor Abdul Malik and 13 others at a bustling livestock market.