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Suicide bombing kills nine, wounds 49 in NW Pakistan

AFP, Peshawar

At least nine people were killed and 49 injured on Monday after a suicide bomber blew up his explosives-laden car in a restive northwestern Pakistan valley, officials said.

The bombing took place at a security checkpoint in the town of Mingora in scenic Swat valley, which has been rocked by a violent campaign to impose harsh Islamic laws. "According to initial reports, nine people were killed and 49 others were injured in the suicide blast at the checkpost," a security official told AFP.

He added that all who died were civilians, and a lone security official was among the wounded.

"The attacker was trying to approach the checkpost after bypassing the queue, but his car exploded on the way," the official said.

The chief of a local government hospital, Doctor Lal Noor, said that nine bodies were brought in along with the 49 who were wounded.

Pakistan is facing its worst period of violence by Islamic militants, many of who are linked to Al-Qaeda.

Nearly 1,500 people have been killed since July 2007 in a wave of militant bombings across the country.

Separately, one militant was killed and several others were injured in a clash with troops in Mingora, a security official said.

He added that authorities on Monday imposed an indefinite curfew in Mingora and that troops had launched a search operation for militants in the area.

Gunfights were also reported in several other parts of Swat valley and some arrests were made, the official said, but he did not have any more immediate details.

The mountainous, snow-capped Swat region is renowned for its ancient Buddhist relics and once attracted large numbers of foreign and local tourists with Pakistan's only ski resort.

But since last year it has been beset by violence blamed on pro-Taliban militants.

Another report adds: At least 13 people were killed and more than 70 injured when activists from rival political parties clashed in Pakistan's largest city Karachi, officials said Sunday. Troops were authorised to use guns to quell the violence as members of the ruling coalition party Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) clashed with the Pashtun nationalist Awami National Party.

"In different incidents of firing by rioters, 13 people have been killed and dozens of others injured," Karachi police chief Waseem Ahmed said.

The rioters set shops on fire at the city's Timber Market and also torched push-carts in other areas of the city, witnesses said.

Doctors at Karachi's main state-run hospital said they had seen 77 people wounded in the riots since late Saturday.

Thai protesters leave PM's office after attacks

AFP, Bangkok

Thai protesters Monday began leaving the prime minister's offices after a three-month sit-in, moving instead to reinforce a paralysing anti-government blockade of Bangkok's two airports.

Leaders of an alliance trying to force premier Somchai Wongsawat to resign said they were worried by recent grenade attacks which have killed two protesters and wounded dozens more at Government House in the capital.

In another apparent climbdown, the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) allowed 37 empty aircraft to fly out of Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi international airport in the past two days.

"It's too risky to stay at Government House because of repeated attacks against us," PAD spokeswoman Anchalee Paireerak said. "All of us have started to move now. We expect to complete the movement this evening."

An AFP reporter saw dozens of supporters carrying plastic bags and sleeping mats leaving the compound, which protesters had heavily fortified with razor wire and tyres.

The PAD seized the cabinet offices in late August, as part of a campaign they launched in May to topple an elected government they accuse of running the country on behalf of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, ousted in a 2006 coup.

They took that campaign to unexpected heights last week, storming the main international airport on Tuesday and then occupying the older Don Mueang domestic airport the next day.

The abandonment of the premier's offices will likely ease the risk of clashes with a rival pro-government group who camped out in Bangkok for a second day a few kilometres (miles) from Government House.

About 15,000 red-shirted pro-government activists had converged on city hall in downtown Bangkok on Sunday night, and around 1,500 of them remained there on Monday morning, police said.

"We will rally again this afternoon at the same place," Chinawat Haboonpard, a leader of the pro-government group, told AFP.

Chinawat said the group had not yet decided whether to launch a blockade of the Constitutional Court, which is due Tuesday to wrap up a case that could see the ruling party disbanded for vote fraud and Somchai banned from politics.

Over the last three months the PAD turned the compound around the Venetian-style Government House into a sprawling tented city, complete with portable toilets, food stalls, stages and massive television screens.

But unknown groups have launched grenade attacks at the site. On Sunday, 49 protesters were injured in a blast.

Government spokesman Nattawut Saikuar said Prime Minister Somchai had been notified about the end of the siege.

"I expected the protesters to gradually abandon the site because it's clear they will not achieve victory. After they occupied the airports, the rest of society is against them," he told AFP.

But with the airports still blocked, a number of nations sent emergency flights to evacuate the estimated 100,000 travellers stuck in Thailand for the last week.

Sri Lanka army seizes key rebel-held town

AP, Colombo

Sri Lankan soldiers captured a key town on the main highway to the headquarters of the country's Tamil rebels, 18 years after the insurgents seized the area by overrunning an army camp, the military said Monday.

Troops seized Kokavil town, some 12 miles (20 kilometers) south of the insurgents' de facto capital of Kilinochchi on Sunday, military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said. He did not give casualty details.

The capture was the latest sign of the government's current dominance in the island's decades-old civil war. The rebels have been forced to abandoned vast areas of land while retreating to territory in the northeast during months of heavy battles.

Tamil Tiger rebels have controlled Kokavil since they overran a military camp there in 1990, Nanayakkara said.

Rebel officials could not be contacted for comment. It is difficult to verify the battlefield reports because journalists are barred from the war zone.

The government has vowed to crush the rebels to end their separatist war. It says its forces are closing in on Kilinochchi, while other troops are advancing toward the rebel stronghold of Mullaitivu on the northeastern coast.

Tamil Tiger rebels have fought since 1983 to create an independent homeland for the country's ethnic minority Tamils, who have suffered marginalization at the hands of successive governments controlled by ethnic Sinhalese.

More than 70,000 people have been killed in the violence.

Mumbai gunmen trained in Pakistan: Investigators

Reuters, Mumbai

Indian investigators said on Monday the militants who attacked Mumbai had months of commando training in Pakistan, adding to rising tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours as recriminations mounted at home. The fallout prompted a second top politician from the ruling Congress party to resign, amid growing anger at intelligence failures that many Indians believe allowed 10 Islamist gunmen to kill 183 people.

Militants have power to start regional war: Zardari

Reuters, Mumbai

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has appealed to India not to punish his country for last week's attacks in Mumbai, saying militants have the power to precipitate a war in the region, the Financial Times reported on Monday.

Zardari, whose wife Benazir Bhutto was assassinated by Islamist militants last year, warned that provocation by rogue "non-state actors" posed the danger of a return to war between the nuclear-armed neighbors.

"Even if the militants are linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba, who do you think we are fighting?" asked Zardari in an interview with the Financial Times.

"We live in troubled times where non-state actors have taken us to war before, whether it is the case of those who perpetrated (the) 9/11 (attacks on the United States) or contributed to the escalation of the situation in Iraq," said Zardari.

"Now, events in Mumbai tell us that there are ongoing efforts to carry out copycat attacks by militants. We must all stand together to fight out this menace."

The Mumbai assaults that killed nearly 200 people bore the hallmarks of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based group blamed for previous attacks in India.

Indian officials have said most, perhaps all, of the 10 Islamist attackers who held Mumbai hostage with frenzied attacks using assault rifles and grenades came from Pakistan, a Muslim nation carved out of Hindu-majority India in 1947.

The fallout from the three-day rampage in Mumbai, India's commercial center, has threatened to unravel India's improving ties with Pakistan and prompted the resignation of India's security minister.

The White House said on Sunday that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would travel to India on Wednesday, as analysts warned the United States could get ensnared in the row and it may prove to be a setback in the war on Islamic radicals on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

Bush sends Rice to India in aftermath of attacks

AFP, Washington

President George W. Bush on Sunday dispatched Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to New Delhi in support of India following the terrorist attacks that killed nearly 200 people, including six Americans.

Rice and Bush wanted an opportunity "to express the condolences of the American government directly to the Indian government and the Indian people," Rice spokesman Sean McCormack said. Rice was scheduled to leave Sunday night for a meeting in London and then travel to Brussels for a NATO gathering. On Wednesday, following the NATO meeting, she will travel to New Delhi, according to her new itinerary.

"Secretary Rice's visit to India is a further demonstration of the United States' commitment to stand in solidarity with the people of India as we all work together to hold these extremists accountable," White House press secretary Dana Perino said in a statement.

Rice had planned to attend the meeting of NATO foreign ministers Tuesday and Wednesday, with talks focusing on a broad international agenda, including Afghanistan, Georgia and the Ukraine. From there she was to visit Rome, Helsinki and Copenhagen, but it was unclear whether the trip to India would cancel or only postpone those visits.

Rice spoke with President-elect Barack Obama about India earlier on Sunday, McCormack said. It was the third phone conversation between the two since the attacks. Rice has also been in daily phone contact with Indian and Pakistani officials.