Attacks Kill 37 Pakistani Soldiers in Northwest

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, July 15 -- A suicide blast killed 24 Pakistani troops in North Waziristan on Saturday, dealing a potentially critical blow to a controversial peace deal between the government and tribal elders in a region where al-Qaeda has been rapidly reorganizing.

In another attack early Sunday, a military convoy was struck by a roadside bomb in the restive Swat Valley in North-West Frontier Province, killing at least 13 soldiers according to local security officials. An additional 40 troops were injured, military spokesman Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad said.

The violence came amid heightened tension in northwestern Pakistan after the government raided the besieged Red Mosque in Islamabad last week and killed at least 75 militants. Since then, radical clerics have called for revenge. At least 66 people have died in a spate of attacks over the past two weeks, with Pakistani security forces taking heavy losses.

Saturday's North Waziristan attack, in which an explosives-laden car rammed into a military convoy, injured an additional 29 troops, was considered one of the most devastating strikes against the Pakistani military in recent years.

The attack occurred in an area where security forces and pro-Taliban fighters have technically agreed to a cease-fire. But the viability of that agreement was in question Saturday, and there were indications that both sides were girding for more violence. Thousands of troops rumbled into the border region, though the military said it had no specific plans to attack.

A purported spokesman for the Taliban in Pakistan said in an interview that the government should prepare to fight a full-scale guerrilla war unless it immediately withdraws troops from North Waziristan. The government had recently set up checkpoints in the area, which the Taliban considers a violation of the peace deal.

"We give the government a deadline till [Sunday] for closing all checkpoints and withdrawing its forces," Abdullah Farhad, the purported spokesman, said in a telephone interview. "Otherwise, the peace agreement will collapse and we will start our war against the government troops."

The government said that the checkpoints were necessary because the other side was not abiding by the terms of the agreement but that overall the deal remained operative.

"The deal is very much in place and will stay in place," said Tariq Azim Khan, the state minister for information. "These threats are only made to destabilize the area. The vast majority of people there are still supporting the peace deal."

Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the Pakistani president who is considered a crucial U.S. counterterrorism ally, has consistently defended the agreement. His government has boasted that local tribesmen were aggressive this spring in ousting foreign fighters.

Khan said on Saturday that the North Waziristan deal should be a model for dealing with militancy in other parts of Pakistan. "There should be more deals like this," he said.

But as Khan spoke, the military appeared to be preparing for battle. Over the past several days, the army has been moving troops, vehicles and supplies into areas near Waziristan as part of a campaign Musharraf announced late last week to stamp out extremism. More than 20,000 soldiers have been brought into various trouble spots.