Militants kill 38 in northwest Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Suicide attackers struck a police headquarters and a military convoy on Sunday in Pakistan's northwest, killing as many as 38 people in an intensifying anti-government campaign in an area long known as a haven for the Taliban and al-Qaida.

Militants in the Afghan border region disavowed a 10-month old truce with the government that critics said gave them a safe haven from which to launch attacks on Afghan, U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.

The government has deployed thousands of troops to the region to thwart calls by extremists for a holy war to revenge the bloody storming of Islamabad's Red Mosque last week, and the region's Islamic militants are increasingly training their attacks on the soldiers — and apparently other government targets as well.

In Dera Ismail Khan, near South Waziristan, the bomber at the police headquarters struck as recruits were testing to join the force, said Gul Afzal Afridi, a police officer.

"It was a suicide bombing and the attacker mingled among the scores of people gathered for the test and physical examination," Afridi said.

More than 150 people were on the grounds when the bomber struck. The blast killed 20 people and wounded 35, said police officer Mohammed Aslam. He said the head of the suicide bomber and his suicide vest had been found.

Elsewhere, in a mountainous area of North West Frontier Province near the Afghan border, a convoy of army and paramilitary troops was attacked by suspected militants, Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad said. An official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak with the press said 18 people were killed and 47 wounded; Arshad said 11 soldiers and three civilians had died.

"These were two suicide attacks in which two blue Suzuki vans were used as well as an (improvised explosive device) blast," said Arshad, who said 39 soldiers were wounded by the explosions.

On Saturday, a suicide bombing killed at least 24 soldiers and wounded 29 on a road near Daznaray, a village about 30 miles north of Miran Shah, the main town in the North Waziristan tribal region, Arshad said......