The Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Islam is sometimes described as part of the broader Taliban movement, but if so there's trouble in paradise. A Taliban suicide bomber reportedly attacked a Lashkar-e-Islam base in the Tirah Valley today, killing 23 people, Pakistani officials tell the AP. It's unknown how many of those killed were civilians. It was a bloody day for Lashkar-e-Islam, which also launched a major attack on a Pakistani military hilltop security post.
That attack resulted in a pitched battle that left 10 soldiers and 23 militants dead, the New York Times reports. The Pakistani military is in the midst of an offensive into the Khyber region, in an attempt to push Lashkar-e-Islam out of the Bara subdistrict that is uncomfortably close to Peshawar. Officials say they were expecting the hilltop post to be attacked, because it is strategically located between Bara and the Tirah Valley, Lashkar-e-Islam's traditional stomping grounds. (More Lashkar-e-Islam stories.)
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