ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A suicide car bomber attacked a military vehicle in a crowded market in northwest Pakistan on Monday, killing at least 41 people and wounding dozens more, police and hospital officials said.
The explosion occurred at the Alpuri market — whose shops are adjacent to a police station and a mosque — in North-West Frontier Province. Among the dead, according to a local police official, were six soldiers and four newly recruited members of a community police force.
No one took immediate responsibility for the blast, although it was likely to be blamed on Talban insurgents who have been active in the area and in the nearby Swat Valley.
Two years ago next month, militants seized the police station in Alpuri, the headquarters of Shangla district, in a bold operation that embarrassed the Pakistani Army. At the time, the military had just been granted broader powers under an emergency decree to battle Taliban fighters and other militants who had steadily been taking control of Swat.
The bombing on Monday followed a brazen weekend assault by Taliban gunmen in Rawalpindi, the garrison city next to Islamabad and the headquarters of the Pakistani military.
The Pakistan offensive can't come soon enough.
Desperate people make desperate decisions. Unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteElli