At least 41 dead in Pakistan suicide bombing

KHAR, Pakistan - A suicide bombing at a World Food Programme distribution point killed at least 41 people Saturday in a tribal area of northwestern Pakistan bordering Afghanistan, officials said.

The blast occurred in Khar, the main town of lawless Bajaur tribal district, once a stronghold of Taliban militants who have carried out several bombing and suicide attacks in the area.

"At least 41 people are dead and more than 60 wounded in the suicide bombing," tribal administration official Sohail Khan said.

There were conflicting reports about the bomber. Some officials said it was a woman while others said the attacker was a man wearing a burqa.

The bomber was intercepted at a checkpoint outside the ration distribution centre and the blast occurred while they were being searched, Khan said.

Deputy Administrator of Khar, Tariq Khan, told AFP that the bombing was carried out by a woman.

"It was a female suicide bomber," Tariq Khan said.

Tribal police officials Mubashir Khan and Munasib Khan also said the attacker was a woman, who resisted search and hurled a hand grenade at security guards at the checkpoint before triggering her bomb.

Security officials said that they had prior information that two suicide bombers had entered Bajaur and would carry out attacks on December 22, but had been forced to change their plan.

Munasib Khan said that the feet of a woman had been found on the blast site, but the head had yet to be found.

The local administration imposed an indefinite curfew in Khar and security forces patrolled streets and launched a search operation in the area, officials said.

Doctor Mohammad Hafeez, head of the local state-run hospital, confirmed the death toll and said there were several women and children among the casualties.

Pakistan's military first launched operations in Bajaur in August 2008 and have repeatedly claimed to have eliminated the Islamist militant threat.

The country's northwest tribal belt is a stronghold of homegrown Islamist militant groups and extremists who fled Afghanistan after the US-led invasion toppled the hardline Taliban regime in late 2001.

Around 4,000 people have died in suicide and bomb attacks across Pakistan since government forces raided an extremist mosque in Islamabad in 2007. The attacks have been blamed on networks linked to the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.

Bajaur is one of seven Pakistani tribal districts, which the United States considers the global headquarters of Al-Qaeda and the most dangerous place on Earth.

US officials are putting pressure on Pakistan to launch a major ground offensive in the tribal region of North Waziristan, considered a fortress for Taliban groups fighting US-led troops in Afghanistan.

Pakistan vehemently denies accusations that it is not doing enough to eradicate the Taliban in the northwest, saying more than 2,400 troops have been killed in fighting Islamist militants from 2002 until April this year.

Pakistan supported the Taliban regime in Afghanistan from 1996-2001, but became a US ally after the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington.