Toll Nears 100 After Pakistan Suicide Attack

A northwest Pakistani village that tried to resist Taliban infiltration struggled with grief today as families mourned 96 people killed in an apparent revenge suicide bombing at an outdoor volleyball game. The attack on Shah Hasan Khel village was one of the deadliest in a surge of bombings that have killed more than 600 since October, and it sent a bloody New Year's message to Pakistanis who dare take on the extremists.

As rescuers looked for bodies in the rubble, many residents in the village of 5,000 were too scared today to even speculate who carried out the blast. The suicide bomber detonated 550 pounds of explosives on the crowded field in the village during a volleyball tournament yesterday. The blast was probably intending to hit a nearby gathering of tribal elders who oversee an anti-Taliban militia. It leveled about three dozen mud-brick homes.
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