Swat suicide attack claims 10

A suicide bomber driving a motorised rickshaw blew himself up at a security checkpoint in northwestern Pakistan, killing at least 10 people and injuring 52, officials and a doctor. The attack, in a small town in Pakistan's violence-battered Swat Valley, was the second major attack in the country in less than 24 hours. Suicide bombers killed 55 people in near-simultaneous blasts on Friday in the eastern city of Lahore. No one claimed has responsibility for either attack, though suspicion quickly fell on the loose network of Islamist insurgents who have been laying siege to the US-allied Islamabad government for years and who have stepped up attacks against security forces in recent days. Today, an attacker driving a three-wheeled motorised rickshaw detonated explosives at a roadblock manned by soldiers and police in the town of Saidu Sharif in the Swat Valley, a police official Qazi Farooq said. The explosion sparked panic in the neighborhood, as soldiers in battle gear carried the victims - injured and dead - through the narrow streets to get them help.

Lal Noor, a doctor at a local hospital, said 10 people died in the attack - one soldier, one policeman and eight civilians - and 52 others were wounded. In Lahore, meanwhile, funerals were being held today for the dozens of people killed the day before. A police official Chaudhry Shafique said the death toll from that attack rose to 55 today after 12 more people died overnight. The attack also wounded about 100 people.

AP