Suicide bomber kills 35 soldiers in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Nov 8 (Reuters) A suicide bomber killed 35 Pakistani soldiers today at an army training ground in a northwestern area known to be a stronghold of an Islamist militant group.

The blast, the most serious militant attack against the Pakistani military, took place in the town of Dargai, in North West Frontier Province.

The militant group that is strong in the area ran a school that security forces attacked in a nearby tribal area late last month, killing 80 people.

''It was a suicide attack. The bomber wrapped a chadar (cloak) around his body and came running into the training area and exploded himself where recruits had gathered for training,'' a military official said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Pakistan is a major U.S. ally in the war on terrorism and has been battling militants in its northwest over the past few years.

Hundreds of members of the security forces and militants have been killed.

Dargai, 130 km northwest of the capital Islamabad, is a stronghold of militant group Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (Movement for the Implementation of Mohammad's Sharia Law).

The group, which backs Afghanistan's Taliban, was banned by the government in 2002.

Security forces last month attacked a madrasa, or religious school, run by the group in a tribal area, about 40 km to the northwest, near the Afghan border, killing about 80 suspected militants.

The group denied that militants were being trained at the school.

The group launched a vigorous campaign in the 1990s to enforce Taliban-style Islamic rules in the area and sent thousands of tribesmen to Afghanistan to fight alongside the Taliban following the US-led invasion in 2001.

Representatives of the group were not immediately available for comment.

The recruits had gathered to rest after finishing a training session when the bomber struck, a politician said from Dargai.

REUTERS PB BD1241