Motorcycle Bomber Kills at Least 62 in Pakistan

Pakistan -- A pair of homicide bombers struck outside the government office Friday in a tribal region where the army has fought the Taliban, killing 62 people and wounding 111 in one of the deadliest attacks in Pakistan this year.

The attack, possibly aimed at some anti-Taliban tribal elders, showed that the Islamist militants remain a potent force in the northwest tribal belt bordering in Afghanistan, despite army offensives and U.S. missile strikes aimed at wiping them out. Washington is now watching closely how Pakistan handles its militant crisis, pushing the South Asian country to wage war on Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters who use its territory to plan attacks inside the Afghanistan.

The bombers detonated their explosives near the Yakaghund village office of the Rasool Khan, a deputy administrator of the Mohmand tribal region, who escaped unharmed. A group of tribal elders, including those involved in setting up the militias to fight the Taliban, were in the building at the time. None was hurt, according to Mohmand chief administrator Amjad Ali Khan.

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