Car Bomb In NW Pakistan Kills 10

Troops set up checkpoints on roads leading out of a town in northwestern Pakistan on Sunday, a day after a suicide car bombing there killed 10 people, officials said.

A suicide attacker slammed an explosive-laden car into traffic Saturday at a busy bus station in Parachinar, near the border with Afghanistan, killing several people on the spot and wounding more than two dozen others.

The death toll rose to 10 after a 12-year-old boy wounded in the bombing died early Sunday, said Mohammed Hanif, a doctor at Parachinar's main state-run hospital. At least 34 other people were wounded.

Security forces increased patrols in the streets and troops manned checkpoints on roads leading out of the town, checking vehicles for suspicious people and explosives, a security official said on condition of anonymity because he did not have the authority to make media comments.

Wreckage of the car used in the bombing has been removed from the street and investigators have no clue yet as to who was involved, he said.

The bombing was the latest in almost daily violence in Pakistan, mostly in the restive region bordering Afghanistan, that has killed more than 350 people in the past month.

In the nearby tribal region of North Waziristan on Saturday, pro-Taliban militants attacked a military checkpoint in remote Oblanki, army spokesman Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad said. Ten militants and four troops were killed before the attackers fled back into the region's mountains, pursued by helicopter gunships, Arshad said. Five other soldiers were wounded.

Pakistan is a key ally of the United States in its war on terror, and it has deployed about 90,000 soldiers in its tribal regions since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to flush out remnants of the Taliban and al Qaeda, who are believed to be hiding there.

The surge in violence has followed tribal leaders' withdrawal from a 2006 peace deal with the government, and amid widespread anger at an army raid of Islamabad's radical Red Mosque last month that left at least 102 people dead.

Arshad said Saturday's gunbattle in North Waziristan raged between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. and ended when the militants fled with some of the bodies of slain associates.

A local intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media, said the assailants shouted "God is great" and used rockets, assault rifles and other munitions to target the checkpoint.