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Suicide Attack Kills 17, Mostly Police, in Pakistan

10 February 2010 19:31 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. In one of the bloodiest days for Pakistani security forces, at least 17 people, including 13 police officials, were killed Wednesday when a suicide bomber attacked a convoy in the northwestern tribal area of Khyber, local news outlets reported, APA reports quoting The New York Times newspaper.
Khyber is strategically located next to the North-West Frontier Province and its capital, Peshawar, and serves as one of the main supply routes of for the American forces inside Afghanistan. Convoys of trailers carrying supplies for NATO troops have repeatedly been attacked in Khyber by Taliban militants.
According to initial reports, the suicide bomber was on foot and detonated his explosives as the police convoy passed through a market on one of the main roads of the area.
The powerful blast ripped through the security forces vehicle and damaged several other civilian vehicles. Local television news networks broadcast images of the charred wreckage of the security forces vehicle and damaged mud houses nearby. The wounded were taken to hospitals in Peshawar.
Pakistani news networks reported that a rescue team sent to the scene from Peshawar was then ambushed as well. An army brigadier was killed in the attack while a major and lieutenant were injured.
The suicide attack came hours after a Pakistan Army Cobra gunship helicopter crashed in the Tirah Valley in Khyber. The fate of the pilot and gunner was not immediately known.
A military spokesperson said that details were being gathered to ascertain the cause of the crash. The remote green terraced valley of Tirah has long been known as a hide-out and escape route of Taliban and Qaeda militants.