Pakistan Suicide Attack Kills At Least 16

A suicide bomber blew himself up at a military checkpoint in northwest Pakistan today, killing at least 16 people.

Senior government official Iqbal Khattak told media that the man, wearing a vest packed with explosives, walked up to a post in Khar, the main town in the restive tribal region of Bajaur, and detonated the bomb.

The area has become a stronghold for hundreds of Islamist extremists who fled Afghanistan after the ousting of the Taliban regime in Kabul in late 2001.

compiled from agency reports