Suicide bomber kills mayor, 12 more in Pakistan (Roundup)

Islamabad - A suicide bomber killed an anti-Taliban mayor and 12 other people in Pakistan's troubled North West Frontier Province on Sunday, officials said. The attack took place outside a cattle market in the Adezai area, located 25 kilometres south-west of the provincial capital, Peshawar. 'Thirteen people, including the mayor, were killed and 40 more wounded,' said Dr Sahib Gul of the state-run Lady Reading Hospital. Police officer Karim Khan said the bomber's target was Abdul Malik, mayor of the village of Mattani. Once a Taliban supporter, Malik switched sides last year and in recent months had turned vocal against the militants. He also raised a militia, or lashkar, against the insurgents operating in the nearby Khyber tribal region. Malik had survived several previous attempts on his life. Gul said death toll in the blast could rise furthr, as up to 10 of the injured were in critical condition. The bomber struck the cattle market when it was brimming with people who were there to purchase animals for the Muslim festival of Eid al-Edha scheduled for the last week of this month. Television footage showed several destroyed vehicles at the scene. Many had scores of holes punched through them by ball bearings, a common component in explosives vests. Pakistan has been witnessing a wave of attacks on official and civilian targets since October. They have killed more than 300 people. A car bombing in a crowded market for women in the heart of Peshawar last month killed more than 110 people. The surge in violence comes as nearly 30,000 troops are battling Taliban fighters and their al-Qaeda comrades in the South Waziristan tribal district, which is on the Afghan border and adjacent to North West Frontier Province. Troops have surrounded several Taliban towns since launching the operation on October 17 and intense street fighting was taking place to eliminate the militants holed up in built-up areas. The military said on Sunday that 20 terrorists were killed in the previous 24 hours. With these casualties, the army-provided death toll on the Taliban side had reach 478, as against the 42 soldiers which the military says it has also lost in combat. The casualty figures could not be verified independently because the conflict zone is closed to journalists. Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said at the weekend that the Waziristan operation was 'progressing well,' adding that it would be wrapped up before the stipulated time. At the start of the assault, military strategists had said that it might take up to eight weeks to clear the rugged region. The United States, Pakistan's key ally in the fight against militancy, has appreciated the offensive. South Waziristan has become a hub of al-Qaeda militants who use the lawless region to plan and carry out deadly attacks on the Western forces in Afghanistan. Pakistan officials have also claimed that 80 per of terrorists attacks taking place in the country had roots in the tribal region.