Suicide car bomb kills nine in Pakistan's Swat

February 22, 2010

A suicide car bomber hit a military convoy killing nine people, including children, in Pakistan's Swat district on Monday, just months after the army claimed to have quelled a Pakistani Taliban uprising.

The bomber blew up a vehicle packed with explosives as security forces drove through the centre of Mingora, the main town of Swat where the military has sought to reassert control after putting down the Islamist insurgency.

Shops and cars were damaged in what was the deadliest attack in the former tourist district once frequented by Westerners since a suicide bomber flung himself at a military convoy killing 45 people on October 12 in Shangla.

Local television footage showed a car enveloped in flames and black smoke billowing down a street, as casualties lay on the ground in blood-soaked clothing. Soldiers rushed to the scene and ambulances ferried away the wounded.

Frightened women and children could be seen scurrying from the scene.

"I was going for some work in the bazaar but was stopped by security forces because the army convoy was moving," said Saeedur Rehman, a 45-year-old teacher. Moments later, a car hit the tail end of the military convoy.

"Suddenly there was a huge blast and smoke filled the area. Then heavy firing started and I lay on the ground," Rehman told AFP.

Police said nine people died and officials said they had recovered parts of the Suzuki car used by the bomber.

"Four women, two children and three men were killed," city police chief Qazi Ghulam Farooq told AFP, adding that of the 39 people injured, four were in a serious condition.

"It was a suicide car bomb.... The target was an army convoy," Major Mushtaq Ahmad Khan from the Swat Media Centre told AFP.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned the bombing, vowing that "such inhuman acts of terrorism" would not sway Pakistan from its determination "to curb this menace and fight the insane extremists".

Swat has been held up as a success story in Pakistan's fight against Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants by local and US officials, who praised the offensive for apparently ending a two-year local Taliban insurgency.

The former tourist resort, once favoured for its pristine natural beauty and skiing, slipped out of Islamabad's control in July 2007 after radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah mounted a violent campaign to enforce Islamic sharia law.

The army launched an offensive last April and says more than 2,150 militants were killed in Swat and the neighbouring Buner and Lower Dir districts. In July, it said that most of the insurgent bastions had been wiped out.

US national security adviser General James Jones visited Swat valley earlier this month and congratulated Pakistani security forces on the "success" of their operations and noted their "tremendous sacrifices".

But despite the relative calm, sporadic clashes and suicide attacks have continue to rock the valley in the last seven months.

On December 1, a suicide bomber killed a provincial lawmaker as he received guests at his home in Swat's Kanju town, about 30 kilometres (18 miles) northwest of Mingora.

Pakistan's military is now engaged in fighting in the northwest tribal belt along the Afghan border, where the core Taliban leadership and Al-Qaeda-linked militants are holed up in the rugged mountain terrain.

More than 3,000 people have been killed in suicide and bomb attacks across Pakistan since July 2007 in a deadly campaign blamed on Islamist militants opposed to the government's alliance with the United States.