Suicide blasts kill more than 55 in Pakistan tribal region

Suicide bomb blasts tore through a busy market in a volatile tribal region along the Afghan border Friday, killing more than 55 people in an attack that illustrated the Taliban insurgency’s potency despite several recent offensives carried out by Pakistani troops against militants in the country’s tribal belt.

The explosions took place in the village of Yaka Ghund in the Mohmand tribal region, outside the offices of a senior Mohmand administrator, police said. More than 100 people were injured. Authorities said one of the bombers was on a motorcycle, while the other detonated a car or pickup filled with explosives.

The intended target remained unclear. A large crowd lining up for new national identity cards had gathered at government offices located in Yaka Ghund’s main bazaar, and the bazaar itself was filled with midmorning customers. Government offices and bustling markets have often been targeted in Taliban suicide bomb attacks.

However, Pakistani television channels reported that members of a local lashkar, or anti-Taliban tribal militia, had been meeting in the vicinity when the blast occurred and may have been the intended target.

Munir Khan, a shopkeeper at the market, said his store was just a few yards from the blast site.

“It was a huge blast, and there was total destruction everywhere,” Khan said. “I saw injured people on the ground and dead bodies burned beyond recognition.”

Television footage of the blast site showed villagers with shovels scouring for survivors and remains amid a wide swath of destroyed storefronts and offices. The explosion left a 5-foot wide, 4-foot deep crater in the road. Rasool Khan, the Mohmand administrator, said authorities were expecting the death toll to rise as rescue workers continued to sift through the rubble.

Mohmand is one of several tribal regions along the Afghan border where Taliban and Al Qaeda militants continue to seek sanctuary. The Pakistani army has launched offensives in several parts of northwest Pakistan -- including the Swat Valley, South Waziristan, Bajaur, Orakzai and Khyber -- in an attempt to uproot the insurgency and put an end to a wave of Taliban-engineered suicide bomb attacks and other terror acts that have ravaged the country in recent years.

The offensives, however, have failed to dismantle the insurgency. Their top leaders remain active, and many militants were able to flee the military offensives well in advance and find refuge in other parts of the tribal belt.

Los Angeles Times staff writer Alex Rodriguez reported from Islamabad, and special correspondent Zulfiqar Ali reported from Peshawar, Pakistan. Special correspondent Nasir Khan contributed to this report from Islamabad.