Taliban bomber kills 41 in suicide blast

Islamabad, Oct. 12: A suicide bomber killed 41 people in an attack on a Pakistani military convoy passing through a market on Monday as the Taliban claimed responsibility for a weekend raid on the Army’s headquarters.
Militant attacks have intensified over the past week as the Army prepares to launch a ground offensive on the Al Qaeda-linked fighters’ South Waziristan stronghold.
A suicide bomber on foot leapt at a military vehicle in Shangla district, near the Swat valley, the security officials said.
“The bomber hit one of three military vehicles that were passing through the busiest market in the district,” a top Shangla police official, Mr Khan Bahadur Khan, said by telephone.
The provincial information minister, Mr Mian Iftikhar Hussain, said 41 people had been killed, including 35 civilians and six soldiers, and 45 people were wounded.
The Army has largely driven the militants out of Swat and their leader, Baitullah Mehsud, was killed by a missile fired by a US drone attack in August.
The militants are hitting back.
The Army said the Pakistani Taliban commander Wali-ur-Rehman was behind Saturday’s attack on its headquarters in Rawalpindi.
Commandos stormed an office building near the headquarters and rescued 39 people taken hostage by militants after an attack at a main gate of the headquarters. Nine militants and three hostages were killed in the violence in Rawalpindi.
Source::DC