Suicide bomb in Pakistan mosque kills around 50

JAMRUD, Pakistan, (AFP)

- A suicide bomber blew himself up during Friday prayers at a packed Pakistan mosque, leaving around 50 dead and scores wounded in one of the bloodiest recent attacks in the nation.

It came as US President Barack Obama vowed to wipe out terrorists from Pakistani safe havens, warning Al-Qaeda was plotting catastrophic new attacks, as he unveiled a sweeping new Afghan war strategy.

The bomb on the weekly Muslim day of rest exploded in Jamrud, a town in the restive northwest Khyber tribal region that is located on a key road used to ferry supplies to Western troops across the border in Afghanistan.

Blood-soaked caps, shoes and shirts lay around the flattened mosque, where dazed survivors looked on as rescue workers dug bodies out of the rubble. “People may have taken three or four dead bodies on their own, but from hospital reports the total dead recorded is 48 and the wounded are 153,” Fida Mohammad Bangash, a senior administration official in Khyber, told AFP.

Administration officials earlier said that more than 50 people died.

Only two minarets were left intact at the mosque, which is frequented by tribal police and paramilitary officers fighting against the Taliban and other Islamist militants in Khyber, as well as local residents.

Pakistani security officials said they suspected Friday’s bombing was to avenge operations against Taliban fighters and other Islamist militants aimed at securing NATO supplies into Afghanistan.