Monday's Bombing in Northern Pakistan: Death Toll Rises up to 45

Monday 41 people were killed and 45 others injured in northwestern Pakistan by a suicide bomber targeting a military convoy. Meanwhile the Taliban claimed responsibility for a Saturday assault on the country's army headquarters.

Photo: Monday's Bombing in Northern Pakistan: Death Toll Rises up to 45

Police say Monday's attacker struck the convoy in Shangla district near the troubled Swat valley as it was passing through a crowded market. Six security personnel are among the dead.

The bombing, Pakistan's fourth attack in a week, came as the Taliban claimed responsibility for the siege of army headquarters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi that killed 10 soldiers, four civilians and nine militants.

The siege ended early Sunday after Pakistani commandos stormed the compound, freeing 39 hostages, Voice of America reports.

The Pakistani Taliban on Tuesday claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing carried out by a teenage boy in northwest Shangla district, which killed 45 people at a busy market.

In the meantime, a boy aged about 13 and wearing a suicide vest threw himself at a military convoy passing through a Alpuri town on Monday, the latest in a wave of attacks that have killed 125 people in Pakistan in eight days, officials said.

"We claim responsibility for the Shangla suicide attack. This is revenge for our martyrs," Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq told an AFP reporter by telephone from an undisclosed location.

"This is part of the series of attacks that we are carrying out. Wait and see more," he added, AFP reports.

It was also reported, four of the wounded in Monday's attack died in hospital this morning.

Doctors treating the wounded said several of them were in a critical condition, TV news channels reported.

This was the fourth major terrorist attack in Pakistan in a little more than a week, Press Trust of India reports.