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Bomb kills 29 in Pakistan as US envoy visits

18 February 2010 18:17 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. A bomb blast at a mosque in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal belt killed 29 people including some militants Thursday, underscoring the relentless security threat here even as Pakistani-U.S. cooperation against extremism appears on the upswing, APA reports citing â€œAssociated Press.â€

The attack in Khyber tribal region came as U.S. special envoy Richard Holbrooke met with Pakistani leaders in Islamabad, the capital. It also followed revelations that Pakistani authorities have been picking up Afghan Taliban leaders on their soil, and as the U.S. staged its latest missile strike in Pakistan’s northwest.

The bomb explosion tore through a mosque in the Aka Khel area of Khyber, killing at least 29 people and wounding some 50 others, local official Jawed Khan said. Earlier reports had said the blast occurred in the Orakzai area at a cattle market.

The two areas border one another, and the market is apparently near the mosque.
Officials were still investigating whether the explosion was caused by a suicide bomber or a planted device.

No group claimed responsibility, but Khan said the dead included militants from Lashkar-e-Islam, an insurgent group in Khyber that has clashed with another militant outfit known as Ansarul Islam. Both espouse Taliban-style ideologies.

Earlier this week, officials confirmed that a joint CIA-Pakistani security operation had captured the No. 2 Afghan Taliban commander, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi.