New suicide attack on Pak troops kills 16

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Pakistani army soldiers patrol near the main town Miranshah of North Waziristan. Suicide bombers have hit a Pakistan army convoy for the second time in two days, killing at least 16 people in apparent retaliation for an army raid on a militant mosque.

PESHAWAR, (Pakistan) July 15 (AFP): Suicide bombers hit a Pakistan army convoy for the second time in two days Sunday, killing at least 16 people in apparent retaliation for an army raid on a militant mosque, officials saidA suicide bomber killed 24 people and wounded scores more the previous day as outrage has erupted across the mainly Muslim nation over the raid, which has saddled President Pervez Musharraf with the worst crisis since he took power.
The mosque raid led Al-Qaeda's number two to call for jihad or holy war against the Pakistan government, which has sent thousands of troops into remote tribal areas to try to keep a lid on bubbling popular anger.
In the latest attack, two cars packed with explosives ploughed into a troop convoy in the Swat Valley district of North West Frontier Province, said Pakistan's chief military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad.
"At least 12 security officials and four civilians were killed," said a local police official at the attack site who asked not to be named.
"The two bombers were also blown to pieces," he said. About 40 people, mostly soldiers were also wounded.
One attacker rammed his vehicle into the convoy, followed within minutes by a second car, police said in the town of Matta where the attack took place.
Arshad said the killings may be revenge attacks over the siege of Islamabad's Red Mosque which culminated in a raid last week that left more than 100 militants and security personnel dead.
Asked if the attacks were in retaliation for the mosque raid, the military spokesman said: "We can't say much. The militants (in the Red Mosque) had linkages in the tribal areas and northwestern region, so it could be. We are investigating."
Militants last week attacked police and security posts in the Swat Valley after local pro-Taliban cleric Maulvi Fazlullah in radio broadcasts urged followers to wage jihad over the mosque attack.
Pakistani army trucks carrying additional troops have rumbled into remote mountain areas in recent days after President Musharraf vowed to crush extremists and "root them out from every corner of the country."
Besides the spate of violent attacks on government forces, there has been political fallout in the world's second-largest Muslim nation amid the heightened tensions triggered by the Red Mosque raid.
Qazi Hussain Ahmed -- the powerful head of the six-party Islamic alliance the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal -- said he would resign from parliament to protest the raid and the ongoing army troop build-up in border regions.
In North Waziristan, pro-Taliban militant commander Abdullah Farhad threatened to end a peace deal struck last September between the government and tribal leaders unless the army left newly-set up checkpoints by Sunday.
"If the government troops do not vacate the checkposts by July 15, we will end the existing peace agreement with the government and launch a guerrilla war," Farhad told AFP by phone from an undisclosed location Saturday.
The United States has raised pressure on ally Musharraf, the army chief who grabbed power in a coup eight years ago, to do more to hunt down Taliban and al-Qaeda insurgents hiding in Pakistan's rugged lands bordering Afghanistan.
New US intelligence reports suggest Al-Qaeda is gaining strength and has established a safe haven in remote tribal areas of western Pakistan for training and plotting new attacks, the Washington Post said last week.
White House national security advisor Stephen Hadley, speaking on US television, said Musharraf had failed to contain al-Qaeda and said his plan to give tribal leaders more autonomy "has not worked the way it should have."
Earlier reporta adds: Pakistan Sunday braced for more backlash violence to the army's deadly raid on a hardline mosque last week after a suicide car bomb attack killed at least 24 troops in an Afghan border areaPakistani army trucks carrying more troops rumbled into northwestern mountain areas after President Pervez Musharraf last week vowed to crush extremists and "root them out from every corner of the country."