Two separate suicide attacks targeting pro-government tribesmen and security forces killed at least 19 people and wounded dozens Thursday in areas of Pakistan's northwest where the military has pursued anti-insurgent offensives, officials said.
The attacks were the latest in a wave of violence in Pakistan as it uses force to bring the northwest under control. While Pakistan has earned U.S. praise for its offensives against militants, many of whom are involved in violence in neighboring Afghanistan, the insurgents have struck back several times, further dismaying a population simmering with anti-U.S. sentiment.
In the Bajur tribal region, a suicide attacker killed 17 local tribesmen who, with government backing, had formed a militia to combat insurgents. Another 40 people were hurt, government and hospital officials said.
A purported spokesman for a Taliban-linked group claimed responsibility for that attack.
In the northwest's Swat Valley later Thursday, a suicide car bomber rammed his vehicle into a checkpoint manned by security forces near a police compound, killing at least two paramilitary troops and wounding at least 20 other people, officials said.
Pakistan launched an offensive in Bajur three months ago to dismantle what it said was a virtual Taliban mini-state from where militants were flowing into Afghanistan.
The Salarzai tribesmen were preparing to stage an assault on local militant hide-outs when the blast occurred, said Iqbal Khattak, a government official. Malik Rahimullah, a tribal elder, said the bomb exploded as soon as armed contingents began to move.
He and officials initially said it appeared that a remote-controlled bomb was used, but later Khattak said mutilated body parts of an apparent suicide bomber were found, and that witnesses said they saw a young man rushing into the crowd before the explosion.
Amir Khan, a tribesman, said the scene was littered with severed limbs and that several tribal elders who were instrumental in starting the militia were among the dead.
Khattak said 11 bodies were taken to the main hospital in the Bajur city of Khar. Mohammad Kareem, a hospital official, said later that at least six of some 45 wounded people had died and that more than a dozen were in serious condition.
Late Thursday, a man who said he was a spokesman for a Taliban-linked group, Caravan-e-Naimatullah, claimed it was behind the bombing. Little is known about the group but earlier this year it briefly took over a handful of schools in the region.
The man, who identified himself as Abdul Rehman, called an Associated Press reporter and other local journalists with the claim. The main Pakistani Taliban spokesman, Maulvi Umar, could not immediately be reached for comment.
The army claims to have killed some 1,500 insurgents in the Bajur offensive. At least 73 troops and 95 civilians have also died, it says. Lack of security and government restrictions mean accounts of the fighting cannot be verified.
The army also has carried out stop-start operations over many months in the Swat Valley, a once-popular tourist destination that has fallen victim to militant violence.
The suicide car bombing rocked the Mingora area in Swat. Officials initially reported a huge explosion and said there was extensive damage followed by a firefight that made it difficult for authorities to search the area.
Senior police official Dilawar Bangash said two paramilitary troops were killed, while Abdullah Khan, an official at a hospital nearby, said at least 20 wounded people came in.
Besides targeting Western and government sites, militants have gone after the tribal militias, including beheading some of the elders involved. A suicide attack in October in the nearby Orakzai tribal region against another such militia left dozens dead.
Also Thursday, airstrikes on militant hide-outs elsewhere in Bajur killed 19 suspected insurgents, the military said.
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Associated Press writers Zarar Khan in Islamabad and Riaz Khan in Peshawar contributed to this report.
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