By Augustine Anthony
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A suicide attack on a funeral and aroadside bomb in northwest Pakistan killed at least 30 peopleon Friday, many of them police, officials said.
The suicide bomber blew himself up among mourners attendingthe funeral for one of three policemen killed earlier whentheir van struck a roadside bomb in a region known as a havenfor al Qaeda and Taliban fighters.
At least 27 people were killed at the funeral in Swat, amountainous region where security forces have been battlingIslamist militants for months, according to Dr. Yasir at Swat'smain hospital in Saidu Sharif, where most of the bodies werebrought.
Karamat Shah, a deputy superintendent of police, said hefeared the toll was higher as several people carried the bodiesof relatives home to prepare them for burial. At least 50people were wounded in the attack, Interior Ministry spokesmanJaved Iqbal Cheema said.
The policeman being buried had been killed near Bannu, atown at the gateway to North Waziristan, a tribal region whereal Qaeda cells have become entrenched.
"The device targeted the police van, killing three peopleand critically wounding two," said Hamza Mehsud chief of policein Bannu district.
A missile, believed to have been fired by a U.S. pilotlessdrone, struck a house in North Waziristan on Thursday, killing13 suspected militants including some believed to be Arabs.
On Monday, the army's top medical officer was killed in asuicide bomb attack in the city of Rawalpindi. Thelieutenant-general was the most senior officer killed so far inthe conflict with al Qaeda inspired Islamist militants.
Over 450 people have been killed in militant-relatedviolence this year alone. A suicide bomb campaign targetingsecurity forces intensified after the army stormed Islamabad'sRed Mosque last July to crush a militant student movement.
The escalating violence has raised concern about thestability of the nuclear-armed state, as it passes through aperiod of political transition with doubts over how longPresident Pervez Musharraf can hold onto power after his allieslost a parliamentary election on February 18.
(Additional reporting by Kamran Haider and Zeeshan Haider,writing by Simon Cameron-Moore, editing by Myra MacDonald)
(For a Reuters blog about Pakistan please see:
http://blogs.reuters.com/pakistan )
