5 killed in suicide attack in Pakistan

A suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into a checkpoint in Pakistan’s northwestern Swat Valley, killing at least five people Saturday.

It was the first suicide attack in Swat since July, when the government said its forces had mostly driven out Pakistani Taliban fighters from the area in its largest offensive against the militants in years. About 2 million people fled the area during the fighting.

A day earlier, Swat residents who had returned staged celebrations of Pakistan’s independence day. In some places, women danced in the streets -- an act of defiance, since the hard-line Islamist Taliban banned women from public during their rule.