Suicide attacks kill 37 people in northwest Pak

Islamabad, July 15: At least 37 people including security officials were killed and dozens of others injured in three suicide attacks and a landmine explosion in northwestern Pakistan today.

''Two Suicide attacks and a landmine blast killed at least 17 people including 12 security officials and wounded 39 others in Matta area near Swat town in Northwestern Frontier Province (NWFP),'' chief military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad told media here.

He said suicide bombers rammed two cars packed with explosives into a military convoy, killing 12 securitymen and four civilians.

He said 39 security personnel sustained injuries, 28 of them were in critical condition, adding that injured people have been transferred to hospitals in Peshawar and Mardan as well as combined military hospital in Rawalpindi.

''Landmine explosion destroyed several houses in the area. Rescue workers recovered body of a girl from wreckage of a house in Matta'' Pakistan's private Geo TV quoted sources.

A suicide bomber blew himself up in Dera Ismail Khan town this afternoon, killing 20 people and injuring another 30.

District Police Office Fazal Gul Afridi told reporters that the bomber detonated explosives strapped with his body near dozens of young boys, who were present in the police lines area to appear in the recruitment tests.

He feared that the death toll might rise as the condition of several injured people is reported to be critical.

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao did not rule out links between the latest attacks and the government's recent military operation in Islamabad's Lal Masjid, which left 102 people, including the firebrand deputy cleric of the mosque Abdul Rashid Ghazi, killed.

Sherpao told reporters in Islamabad on Friday that there could be several unidentified foreigners among the 75 people killed inside the mosque during the 'Operation Silence'. He feared that there might be more than four to five foreign militants, who fought alongside Ghazi against the security forces.

Ghazi, was killed in a cross-fire between militants and security personnel after he was found holed up in one of the basements in Jamia Hafsa on July 10. He had vowed to die than surrender.

UNI

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