PAKISTAN: A suicide bomb ripped through a Pakistani military camp yesterday, killing 42 soldiers and wounding 20, in a dramatic escalation of hostilities between President Pervez Musharraf and militant tribesmen along the troubled Afghan frontier.
The attack occurred in Dargai, a small town 85 miles northwest of Islamabad, and was blamed on extremists seeking revenge for last week's army attack on a radical madrasa (religious school) that killed 80 people.
A bomber wrapped in a shawl rushed into a drill area where soldiers were exercising, triggering an explosion. A suspected accomplice, whose bomb may have failed to detonate, was arrested nearby.
The suicide bombing was the largest single attack on Pakistani soldiers since President Musharraf aligned himself with America's "war on terror" after September 2001.
North West Frontier province has been tense since the October 30th missile strike on a madrasa in Bajaur tribal agency, 30 miles north of Dargai. The military claimed the madrasa was a terrorist training camp, but locals insisted it was a peaceful religious seminary. Thousands of tribesmen have gathered at rallies led by radical clerics calling for bloody retribution, including suicide bombings, against Pakistani, American and British troops. - (Guardian service)