PESHAWAR: Security forces killed at least seven terrorists in an operation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bannu on Friday, security sources said.

Bannu district has been the scene of repeated security incidents in recent months, with both civilians and local security forces coming under attack amid a broader surge in militant violence.

Security sources stated that their forces carried out a successful operation in the Ghora Baka Khel area of Baka Khel tehsil, targeting a suspected vehicle reportedly loaded with weapons and explosive materials.

According to the sources, the forces received credible information about the suspicious movement of terrorists. Acting swiftly on the intelligence, they targeted the suspected vehicle, parked near a government school, using a quadcopter.

The vehicle was carrying a heavy cache of weapons, including a 12.7-millimetre machine gun, RPGs, and mortar shells.

The explosion completely destroyed the vehicle, and initial reports suggest that all “seven to eight” terrorists inside the vehicle were killed on the spot, the security sources added.

“A search and clearance operation is currently underway in the area due to possible security threats, while further investigations are also in progress,” they added.

On Wednesday, terrorists dropped two explosive devices on the premises of Haved police station using a quadcopter, as a result of which two Frontier Corps personnel sustained minor injuries.

Earlier this month, an alleged militant commander and two other people were killed in separate incidents in the district, while militants also attempted to blow up a key link bridge, local sources said.

Last month, at least two police personnel and as many civilians were martyred, while 25 terrorists were killed in a fierce clash between law enforcers, a peace committee and terrorists.

One of the attackers of the Pakistan Rangers (Sindh) Camp in Karachi’s Gulistan-i-Jauhar has detailed how the attack was carried out and revealed that he was trained in Afghanistan, according to security sources.

The attack was carried out on Saturday night, following which three security personnel were martyred during an exchange of fire with the terrorists, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said on Sunday.

The ISPR said in a statement that the attack was carried out by terrorists “belonging to Indian proxy, Jamaatul Ahrar (JuA)”, adding that three terrorists were killed in retaliatory action while one was arrested.

Later, security sources said the arrested terrorist had identified himself as Usman Ali and revealed that he had come to Pakistan from Jalalabad in Afghanistan. They added that Ali identified the three other attackers as Abdul Hadi, Janaan and Umar Farooq.

Moreover, the sources said, he admitted that he belonged to Jamaatul Ahrar, whose commander in Afghanistan he identified as Ahrar Moulvi.

According to the sources, the terrorist, Usman Ali, said he and his companions were trained in Afghanistan. The attacker said he was only given a jacket in Afghanistan by a man he identified as Umar Qari who also trained the terrorists, and they prepared the explosive material themselves, the sources said.

With regards to the attack, Ali revealed that Janaan had thrown a bomb at the Rangers camp, the sources said.

Ali said that he and his companions had come to Hadi, who was a resident of Bajaur, seven days ago and were housed in an under-construction building, according to security sources.

The sources said Ali further revealed that all arrangements from them had been made before they arrived in Karachi. “Abdul Hadi knew everything. He came here previously as well,” the sources quoted him as saying.

Moreover, he said that he and his companions previously did not know the difference between the army and the Rangers. “We came to know about the Rangers after coming here,” the sources quoted him as saying.

They further quoted him as saying that Hadi had sourced the weapons used in the attack from Waziristan.

Speaking about the attack, he said he was shot while running, according to the sources.

As the attack was launched, the residents of Gulistan-i-Jauhar had reported hearing the sounds of an explosion and gunfire at around 8pm on Thursday.

The powerful blast and subsequent heavy gunfire had forced residents and bystanders to scramble for safety. Law enforcement and emergency rescue services had rushed to the scene, while multiple arterial roads leading from Mosamiyat to the Rangers camp were closed to vehicular traffic as a security operation continued late into the night.

The military’s media affairs wing said the attack was carried out by the proscribed JuA. The terror outfit was formed by Abdul Wali aka Omar Khalid Khorasani in 2014 after his split from the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), but both groups joined hands in 2024.

Khorasani was in a car bomb attack in August 2022 in Afghanistan.

In January 2025, a dispute between the two surfaced in the media. Although no formal separation occurred, when the TTP announced its appointments for 2025 in February, no significant positions were allocated to the JuA.

According to information available on the United Nations Security Council’s website, the JuA is based in Nangarhar, Afghanistan.

“Most of JuA commanders and operatives hail from Mohmand Agency … [They were] dispersed after Pakistan’s military operation Zarb-i- Azb. Remnants continue to launch terrorist attacks inside Pakistan,” the website states.

For its part, Islamabad has repeatedly urged the Taliban administration in Kabul to dismantle terrorist sanctuaries on Afghan soil that are used for attacks in Pakistan. Officials say those appeals have gone unheeded.

Earlier this month, Pakistan also carried out strikes on terrorist hideouts along its border with Afghanistan and killed 26 terrorists.

Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said at the time that the strikes were carried out in the aftermath of recent terrorist incidents in Pakistan, including an attack on a Federal Constabulary (FC) post in Musa Dara in Peshawar on June 11. Tarar also mentioned “vehicle-borne suicide attacks on a military post in North Waziristan” on June 2, which was foiled, and the May 9 suicide attack on a Bannu post that claimed the lives of 15 police personnel.

The death toll from the devastating earthquakes that struck Venezuela five days ago has risen to at least 1,719, National Assembly president Jorge Rodriguez said on Monday.

Rodriguez added that 5,034 people were injured in the quakes, which left tens of thousands of people missing.

Hopes of finding survivors more than four days after the powerful twin earthquakes struck Venezuela were fading, as residents grew increasingly frustrated with the government’s response to the disaster.

French and American rescue teams found a man and his teen son alive under the rubble on Sunday in Caraballeda, a town about 40 kilometres north of Caracas, AFP journalists saw.

The rescue offered a glimmer of hope in an ongoing tragedy that has shaken a country already mired in an economic crisis, but tens of thousands of people were still unaccounted for as the critical 72-hour window for rescuing trapped victims passed.

Millions more people were feared to lack sanitation and other basic needs after one of Latin America’s most devastating earthquake disasters.

Some 774 buildings were badly damaged in back-to-back quakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 that struck on Wednesday evening, including 189 buildings that have totally collapsed, National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez said on Sunday.

In the coastal town of Tucacas, rescuers were digging for people trapped in the pancaked layers and rubble of a collapsed building complex.

Luis Salas, 27, who joined the rescue efforts, told AFP that “the hardest part was when we felt hope in the tunnels we went into — crawling, clearing debris, working with all our heart, with great faith — and when we reached our targets, we found them lifeless.”

Experts say the first 72 hours after natural disasters define the narrow window for rescuing the living. After that the search usually becomes one of recovering bodies.

In the capital’s San Bernardino neighborhood, volunteers clambered over a collapsed building, using drills to break up concrete and forming lines to remove rubble by hand.

In Chacao, another area of Caracas, large electronic screens on a building usually used for advertising were showing the faces of missing people.

On Sunday, Rodriguez said the death toll — which was still expected to rise — had reached 1,450 people, with at least 3,150 others injured.

‘Can’t do it alone’

In one of the worst-hit areas, Hector Aguilera came to search for four family members buried in the rubble in the coastal city of La Guaira.

“We don’t have the support to get our family out — we can’t do it alone. They are buried there: we know they are dead, but here we are,” he said.

Even as rescue efforts continued, public anger has mounted in some areas.

Eduardo Cardozo, a volunteer in Tucacas, said it was “frustrating” to know that some victims could have been saved “if they’d been searched for in time.”

In La Guaira state’s Tanaguarena area, one man urged soldiers to pick up picks and shovels: “The country needs you. Put down your weapon.”

Outbreaks of looting have hit La Guaira city, much of which now lies in rubble.

Pharmacies, supermarkets and other businesses were ransacked, said residents, some of whom complained of the slow and meager post-quake aid coming from authorities.

Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodriguez, said on Sunday that temporary camps were being set up for people who had lost their homes.

“At the same time, work begins on planning projects that will allow new homes to be built in a very short time,” she said.

Economic impact

Rodriguez praised rescuers on Sunday, saying “we have rescued people who are still alive, and therefore these efforts will not be suspended.”

“We always hold onto hope.”

Cardozo, the Tucacas volunteer, remained hopeful: “We’re still here waiting. Let’s see if we can get someone else out.”

Twenty-four nations have sent 521 tons of supplies, 86 units with dogs trained to locate people trapped beneath the rubble and more than 2,700 search-and-rescue personnel, according to Rodriguez.

US helicopters ferried in aid, and 230 more US military personnel were arriving to help expand airport capacity and reopen a key seaport to boost relief efforts, the US Southern Command said.

The United States — which captured Venezuela’s former president Nicolas Maduro in a military raid on Caracas in January — had already sent a 250-strong disaster response team.

The UN migration agency said that based on population and damage data, up to 6.76 million people could be affected, and would require shelter, water, sanitation, healthcare and essential relief items.

Venezuela’s worst earthquakes in more than a century have come after the oil-rich country endured more than a decade of economic collapse.

The crisis has hollowed out hospitals and public services, driving millions to leave the country.

The United Nations estimated $6.7 billion in physical damage — equivalent to six percent of Venezuela’s GDP.