KHAR, Pakistan (AP) — A key anti-Taliban tribal leader has been assassinated in Pakistan.
Two local officials say the leader of a pro-government militia was killed by a roadside bomb in northwestern Pakistan as he returned home from prayers. The tribal elder assumed leadership of the militia after his predecessor was killed in a suicide bombing last year.
Elsewhere, authorities have found the bullet-riddled body of another tribal elder who was seized from his home yesterday in an attack that also left his son dead.
Violence has increased in the northwestern tribal regions near the Afghan border since the army launched an offensive in South Waziristan (vah-ZEER'-ih-stahn) in mid-October.
Meanwhile, Pakistan's military says 15 Taliban fighters have been killed in operations in South Waziristan, and another 15 insurgents were killed as Pakistani troops took control of three militant strongholds in the Khyber tribal region.
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