Deadly suicide attack hits northwest Pakistan

Islamabad: The death toll rose in a suicide attack at a busy security checkpoint in northwest Pakistan on Saturday, with officials putting the number of dead at 13 and the number of injured at 52.

Officials earlier said 10 people were killed in the attack on the town of Saidu Sharif in the Swat Valley.

Major General Ashfaq Nadeem, a top military official for the region, said Saturday's attack killed 13 people, including two soldiers and two policemen.

"Such acts cannot demoralise us. I want to assure the people of Swat that we will continue fighting till the last Taliban are eliminated," he said.

The attacker, who was in a three-wheeled auto-rickshaw, detonated explosives in the Saidu Sharif town of Swat district, said police official Qazi Farooq.

Army spokesman Maj. Mushtaq Khan said a soldier, a policeman and five civilians died in the attack. Soldiers and policemen were among the 26 injured, he said.

Khan said the checkpoint was being jointly manned by troops and police. The blast also damaged several vehicles, and the victims were transported to a nearby hospital, he said.

Days of bombings

The attack came a day after two suicide bombers killed dozens of people in near-simultaneous blasts in the eastern city of Lahore.

Police on Saturday said the death toll rose to 55 after 12 more people died overnight from the attacks in Lahore.

Police Chief Parvaiz Rathore said about 10 of those killed were soldiers.

Friday's bombings also wounded about 100 people, raising fears of a new wave of attacks by Islamic militants.