Death toll in Pakistan suicide bomb rises

PESHAWAR // The death toll from a suicide bombing and car bomb attack that devastated a busy market town in Pakistan's northwest tribal belt has risen to 105, officials said today. Two victims died overnight in hospital and a third body was recovered from debris as rescue workers in the town of Yakaghund continued to search rubble at the scene of one of Pakistan's deadliest attacks. "We have recovered a body from the debris and two people who were critically injured have also died in hospitals in Peshawar," Mairaj Khan, a local official at the site said.

Local government official Rasool Khan confirmed the new death toll. Friday's explosions destroyed government buildings and shops and left victims buried under the rubble. The attacks were the deadliest in Pakistan since a massive car bomb destroyed a market crowded with women and children in the northwestern city of Peshawar in October 2009, killing 125 people. The Pakistani Taliban have already claimed responsibility for Friday's blasts, saying the target was a gathering of pro-government tribal elders.

A Taliban and al Qa'eda-linked bombing spree across Pakistan has killed more than 3,500 people in three years since government troops besieged the radical Red Mosque in the capital Islamabad in July 2007. * AFP