Suspected suicide bombing in Pakistan, at least 12 dead

A suspected suicide bomber attacked a gathering of people receiving aid in northwest Pakistan on Saturday and at least 12 people were killed, government officials said. The toll was expected torise.

The attack in the Bajaur region on the Afghan border andcame a day after a big clash between Pakistani Taliban insurgents and security forces in the neighbouring Mohmandregion that left 11 soldiers and 24 militants dead.

"The attack took place when hundreds of people were gathered to receive food rations for people displaced by fighting," said Wisal Ahmed, a government official in Bajaur said.

Other officials and witnesses said the death toll could be much higher.

Pakistan's volatile ethnic Pashtun tribal lands on the Afghan border have been infested with militants and the army has mounted a series of operations to dislodge them.

Hundreds of militants have been killed and many of their strongholds have been captured but the insurgents have shown the ability to strike back and have killed hundreds of peoplein a campaign of bomb attacks across the country.

A senior military official in October said it would take at least six months to clear militants from Bajaur and Mohmand.