OTHER DEVELOPMENTS
SUICIDE BLAST IN PAKISTAN KILLS 16
A suicide bomber killed 16 people Saturday at a police checkpoint in a northwest Pakistani tribal area where the military declared victory over the Taliban and Al-Qaida last year, highlighting the difficulty Islamabad has in holding regions once the battle phase of its army offensives end.
Elsewhere in the lawless tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, three missiles believed to have been fired from U.S. drones killed 15 militants in North Waziristan late Friday night, Pakistani security officials said Saturday.
The target of the strike was a compound in the Mamad Khel area of North Waziristan, the officials said.
Four Arab and two ethnic Uzbek fighters were among those killed, with the rest being local militants, a security official said. Four militants were wounded.
In the suicide attack, 14 civilians and two police officers died in the Bajur tribal region, while 20 people were wounded, local government official Bakhat Pacha said. The attacker, on foot, struck a market area in the region's main town, Khar, he said.
Some of the wounded were in critical condition at hospitals, he said.
The attack came a day after officials said security forces had killed 44 militants in three days of battles on the outskirts of Khar.
Pakistan waged a major military offensive against Taliban and Al-Qaida insurgents in Bajur in 2008, declaring victory over the militants by February 2009. But in recent weeks, clashes, and now this latest suicide attack, have signaled a deteriorating security situation in the area.
