Bombings hit 2 mosques in Pakistan; 50 killed

A suicide bomber struck a mosque frequented by anti-Taliban tribal elders in northwestern Pakistan during afternoon prayers Friday, killing at least 50 people in one of the deadliest attacks this year. A second bombing later in the day wounded several people at another mosque in the troubled Afghan border region.

The blasts were the latest to hit religious gatherings and underscored the relentless security challenge in the US-allied nation, where Islamist militants have managed to strike at the state and citizens who work against them despite pressure from army offensives.

In the first attack, the Sunni mosque's roof collapsed as hundreds of worshippers were gathered inside for the most popular prayer session of the week, and many victims were trapped in the debris.

People in private vehicles rushed the wounded to hospitals in Peshawar, the main city in the northwest, TV footage showed. A woman was beating her head, while two elderly men in blood-soaked clothes laid in a hospital corridor.

The explosion occurred in Darra Adam Khel, an area famous for its illegal weapons bazaars and located near Pakistan's tribal regions where Taliban-led militants have been active.

"The blast tossed me up, then I fell down," Mohammad Usman, 32, a schoolteacher with wounds on his head and arms said from his hospital bed in Peshawar. "Later, it was just like a graveyard."

Local government official Shahid Ullah said the mosque may have been targeted because local tribesmen running an anti-Taliban militia have often met there, though not on this particular Friday. The Pakistani government has encouraged tribal leaders to set up militias to fight the insurgents, and the Taliban have frequently targeted those opponents.

GEO News TV reported that the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, but the group's spokesmen did not immediately respond to calls from The Associated Press seeking comment.