Pakistan's military says a transport helicopter has crashed because of
a technical failure, killing 26 security personnel on board.
Officials
say investigators are looking into the incident, which occurred Friday
outside Peshawar, the main city in the northwest.
Earlier
Friday, Pakistani intelligence officials said a suspected U.S. drone
fired missiles on a militant training center in the South Waziristan
tribal region, killing at least 10 people.
Pakistani military
forces and suspected U.S. drone strikes regularly target areas
controlled by Baitullah Mehsud, a top Taliban leader and al-Qaida ally
wanted by both Pakistan and the United States. Pakistani troops are
preparing for a ground offensive against Mehsud and his Taliban allies.
The stepped-up campaign in western Pakistan comes as troops
also continue to clear the greater Swat Valley region of militants
allied with another Taliban faction. Pakistan's army says troops in
that area killed 13 suspected militants and arrested 24 others in the
most recent operation.
In other news, the
United Nations Children's Fund says it is deeply concerned about the
condition of hundreds of thousands of children who are among the two
million people who have been displaced in Pakistan by the violence.
UNICEF
says nearly half of those people are believed to be children and many
are in urgent need of health and educational services, nutritional
support, access to clean water and sanitation, as well as protection.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.
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