Peshawar, July 9
At least 65 persons were killed and 110 injured when two Taliban suicide bombers struck a government office at a busy market place in Pakistan’s restive tribal belt, the latest in a wave of terror bloodbath that has shaken the country.

The attackers detonated their explosives outside the office of the assistant political agent at Yakaghund village in Mohmand Agency, 40 km north of Peshawar.

Hundreds of people, including members of an anti-Taliban militia, were present outside the office and in the nearby market, witnesses said.

Political Agent Amjad Ali Khan, the region’s top government official, said 65 persons were killed and 110 others injured in the attack. The first bomber was on a motorcycle while the second was driving an explosives-laden vehicle, Khan said.

The Mohmand chapter of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the attack, one of the worst terrorist assaults in the tribal belt.

Taliban spokesman Ikramullah Mohmand told reporters that the bombers had targeted the political administration and the “peace committee” or anti-Taliban militia from Ambar area because they had organised a jirga against the militants.

Over 60 injured people were being treated at the state-run Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar and eight of them were in a serious condition, said Abdul Hamid Afridi, the chief executive of the hospital.

Four persons also succumbed to their injuries, he said. Women, children and personnel of the Khasadar militia were among the dead and injured.

Assistant Political Agent Rasool Khan, who office was targeted, escaped unhurt. One of the explosions was not very powerful while the other caused most of the damage, witnesses said.

A prison, some other government offices and over 70 shops were damaged by the blasts. Police said nearly 30 criminals held in the prison escaped during the chaos in the wake of the attack.

Several buildings, including three restaurants, collapsed and footage on television showed people digging through the rubble with their hands.

Security forces cordoned off the area as rescue workers cleared the rubble and removed the bodies and the injured. Ambulances and heavy machinery were sent to Yakaghund from Peshawar to help the rescue operations.

Ishaq Khan, a security guard at the office that was targeted, said one suicide bomber had come to the market on a motorcycle. The attacker did not stop when security personnel asked him to. “Then he suddenly fell and there was a powerful blast,” Khan said.

Officials said members of a local “peace committee” or anti-Taliban militia, who had come to Yakaghund to meet the assistant political agency, were the main target of the attack. — PTI

Moscow/Washington, July 9
Russia and the US today exchanged 14 secret agents in their biggest spy swap deal since the Cold War in dramatic style, burying a major irritant, which had the potential to snowball into a major crisis.

The US swapped 10 Russian spies for four American agents under a deal at Vienna airport, reflecting the "high level of trust" between Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev.

The spying saga, which unfolded late last month had the potential to snowball into a major crisis, after Obama recently met Medvedev and 'reset' their troubled ties.

Special Russian and US planes took the spies to the Austrian capital Vienna returned within 15 minutes of each other after staging the dramatic swap.

A US jet carrying the 10 members of a Russian spy ring caught in the US arrived from New York and parked next to a Russian plane that reportedly brought four Russians jailed for working for US and other Western nations.

The Russian foreign ministry in a statement said the deal involved the "return to Russia of 10 Russian citizens accused in the United States, along with the simultaneous transfer to the United States of four individuals previously condemned in Russia."

Both the nations swapped 10 Russian spies for four Russians, who were acting as American agents and serving jail terms in Russia.

The Russian Foreign Ministry here confirmed the swap deal. "The relevant agreement has been reached between the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) and the US Central Intelligence Agency in the general context of improving Russian-US relations," a Foreign Ministry statement said.

"The swap deal became possible thanks to a new positive spirit of the Russia-US relations and a high level of understanding and trust between the presidents of the two countries, which no one will be able to undermine," a Kremlin source was quoted as saying by ITAR-TASS.

Symbolising warmed US-Russia ties, Obama and Medvedev travelled in the same presidential limousine from the White House to the Washington suburb of Arlington, Virginia, for lunch at "Ray's Hell-Burger" on June 24.

"All ten spy suspects earlier pleaded guilty in a New York court to failing to register as foreign agents.

They also revealed their true identities and forfeited assets attributable to the criminal offences," RIA Novosti reported quoting the Justice Department release.