Suicide bomber kills 15 in Swat

Strike targets recruits at police station,bomber may have been in uniform....

A suicide bomber killed at least 15 police recruits on Sunday in Pakistans Swat Valley in the deadliest attack since the army regained control over the northwestern valley from the Taliban.

Authorities were investigating reports that the attacker possibly in uniform may have hidden among the dozens of recruits,two officials said.

The blast in the yard of the police station in Mingora,Swats main town,came one day after the army said it had destroyed a major training camp for suicide bombers. It indicated that while the Talibans hard-line Islamist rule may be over in the valley,life is far from normal even as hundreds of thousands of residents who fled the fighting are returning.

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Volunteers for a new community police force were holding their daily drills in the yard adjacent to the station when the attacker detonated his explosives,local government administrator Atifur Rehman said. Initial investigations suggest the attacker climbed the small boundary wall and blew himself up,but there is also a report the suicide bomber was already inside, Rehman said.

Investigators sifted through the blackened wreckage in the courtyard littered with body parts,shredded uniforms and police berets. At least 14 bodies of uniformed recruits were brought to the local hospital,hospital official Ikram Khan said. Eight wounded recruits were brought in,and one later died,he said.

DIG Idrees Khan of the district police said at least 20 were wounded.

Addressing a press briefing late on Sunday,Khan also said there were conflicting reports on whether the bomber climbed the wall or hid himself among the cadets. He had earlier rejected any rumour the attacker might already have been inside. He blamed the attack on a decision to relax a daily curfew in the area for Ramzan.

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After the blast,security forces killed 18 militants in a gunbattle just outside Mingora,Brig. Tahir Hameed said. Many more have been rounded up.

Pakistans army says it is restoring security in Swat and surrounding areas after a three-month military offensive wrested the valley back from Taliban control,but suicide attacks and skirmishes continue. The Pakistani Taliban have vowed revenge after the loss of Swat and the death of their top leader,Baitullah Mehsud,in a CIA missile strike on August 5.

On Saturday,the army said helicopter gunships had destroyed a training camp outside Mingora that it said was responsible for most of the recent suicide attacks.