Suicide bombing toll mounts to 45 in Alpuri

The death toll from a suicide bombing carried out by a teenage boy who struck in a busy market in north-west has risen to 45, officials said Tuesday. The bomber, wearing a vest packed with explosives, flung himself at a military convoy as it passed through a bazaar in Shangla district on Monday, in the fourth deadly attack blamed on Taliban rebels in eight days.
"Two people died overnight and two more died this morning," doctor Ehsanullah Khan of the state run Alpuri hospital told AFP. Thirty-eight people remained in hospital with injuries from the blast, he added. Fazle Karim Khattak, the administration chief of Malakand region, said that 39 of the dead were civilians and six were soldiers. "The attacker was a young boy. He was standing at the side of the road. As soon as the convoy arrived, he rushed into the vehicles and blew himself up," Khattak told AFP.