Blast Near Pakistan's Swat Valley Kills 29, Wounds 40

Pakistani police say a suspected suicide bombing has killed at least 29 people, including security personnel, in the Shangla district, near the troubled Swat Valley. Authorities say some 40 people were wounded in the attack.

Police say the attacker struck a military convoy and set off a huge blast - part of a growing string of explosions and attacks in the country.

The deadly incident came hours after Pakistan officials said military fighter jets bombed militant outposts in a lawless northwestern tribal belt, killing nearly a dozen suspected militants and wounding several others.

In another development Monday, the Taliban have claimed responsibility for Saturday's assault on the heavily guarded army headquarters in Rawalpindi.

The attack and long militant siege of a nearby building that followed left 19 people dead, including eight militants, eight soldiers and three hostages.

Gunmen killed six soldiers in the initial assault on the army headquarters. Pakistani troops killed four of the attackers and captured two more, but other militants took hostages and holed up in an office building.

Pakistani commandos stormed the building early Sunday, freeing 39 hostages, killing four militants and capturing another. Officials said three hostages and two soldiers also were killed during the rescue.

The attack in Rawalpindi came at the end of a violent week. Last Monday, a suicide bomber attacked a U.N. office in Islamabad, killing five staff members, and on Friday another suicide bombing killed at least 50 people in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

Pakistani leaders have vowed to press forward with a long-awaited offensive against terrorist bases in south Waziristan, a tribal region bordering Afghanistan.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.

Source : www.voanews.com