NYT : Suicide Bombers Kill at Least 49 in North Pakistan

Suicide Bombers Kill at Least 49 in North Pakistan

By ISMAIL KHAN | July 16, 2007

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, July 15 — Suicide bombers struck a police recruiting center and a military convoy on Sunday in Pakistan’s volatile northwest, killing at least 49 people in a rapidly escalating conflict between militants and the government.

Since July 3, suicide attacks have killed 103 people in the nation’s tribal areas and North-West Frontier Province, including an explosion on Saturday that killed 24 soldiers.

The latest bombings come at a time of extreme tension in a region used as a redoubt by the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Extremists have called for a holy war against Pakistan’s government to avenge the storming of the Red Mosque last week in Islamabad, a military assault that killed at least 76 people. At the same time, a 10-month truce between the government and local tribal leaders seems to have come fatally undone.

The first bombing on Sunday was a coordinated attack against the military convoy, killing 16 soldiers and five civilians in Matta, a town in the mountainous Swat district of the North-West Frontier Province.

“The suicide attack involved two cars,” said a Pakistani security official who would speak only on the condition of anonymity. “One hit the convoy from the front, which caused the most casualties, while the other hit the convoy from the rear.”

The twin blasts damaged about 30 nearby shops and tore through the roofs of six houses, according to witnesses. A motorcycle packed with explosives in the same area was set off by remote control.

Security forces immediately sealed off the area. Several suspects were detained, the authorities said.

Later, a suicide bomber detonated explosives strapped to his body at a crowded police recruitment center in the city of Dera Ismail Khan, mixing in with 200 job candidates hoping to join the force. Twelve policemen and 16 candidates were killed, and dozens were badly wounded, the police said.

There are also signs of a breakdown of a peace agreement between the government and leaders in the North Waziristan tribal region. Militants are now distributing a document that disavows the truce, complaining that government forces had attacked a suspected militant hide-out. The document, according to The Associated Press, warns local militiamen and elders to cease any cooperation with the government.