41 killed in Pakistan suicide bombing

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A suicide bomber has attacked a Pakistani military convoy, killing 41 people. Police say the blast happened in the Shangla district, near the Swat valley. Meanwhile the Taliban claimed responsibility for a weekend raid on the army's headquarters.

Top military officials say the bomber hit one of three army vehicles that were passing through the busiest market in the district.

Thirty-five civilians and six soldiers died. 45 people were wounded.

The latest attack came as the Taliban claimed responsibility for the 22-hour weekend seige of Pakistan's heavily fortified army headquarters. Nine militants and three hostages were killed in the violence in Rawalpindi while the number of soldiers killed rose to 11.

Major-General Ahhar Abbas, Pakistan's military spokesman, said, "Their target was to take hostage senior officers of the GHQ and then place their demands of rescue. The main demand was to tak -they gave a long list of all those who've we been apprehended, the terrorists who are in our custody, the custody of the government. They wanted them released."

The Taliban says the assault was only the first in a planned wave of strikes intended to avenge the killing of Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud in a CIA missile strike in August.