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Car Bomb Kills at Least 41 in Restive Region of Pakistan
Followup.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Militants on Monday launched their fourth assault in a week on strategic targets across Pakistan, this time with a suicide car bombing against a military vehicle in a crowded market in the northwest, killing 41 people and wounding dozens more. The bombing took place in the Shangla District, an area within the Swat Valley but under separate administration. The Pakistani military had declared the valley cleared of militants after an offensive this summer and announced that the Taliban were a shattered force.

Since the Swat campaign and the death of the Pakistani Taliban leader, Baitullah Mehsud, in an American drone strike in August, the militants have been relatively quiet. But the attack on Monday showed they could still shake the country with serious terrorist attacks in a short period over a wide geographic spread.

It was the latest in a series clearly intended to prove the Taliban's resilience, to exact revenge for government and American strikes, and to discourage the Pakistani military from expanding its campaign into South Waziristan, the heartland of the Taliban in Pakistan.
Posted by: Steve White 2009-10-13
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=280905