Female bomber kills 43 in Pakistan

A female suicide bomber detonated her explosives-laden vest in a crowded aid distribution centre in northwest Pakistan on Saturday, killing at least 43 people and wounding dozens waiting for food stamps, officials said.

The attack appeared to be the first suicide bombing staged by a woman in Pakistan, and it underscored the resilience of militant groups in the country's tribal belt despitethe military operations against them.

The bomb hit the main city in Bajur, a region near the Afghan border where the military has twice declared victory over Taliban and al-Qaeda insurgents. It also came a day after some 150 militants killed 11 soldiers in a co-ordinated assault in a neighbouring region where the army also has carried out operations.

The bomber, dressed in a traditional women's burka, first lobbed two hand grenades into the crowd waiting at a checkpoint outside the food aid distribution centre in the town of Khar, local police official Fazal-e-Rabbi Khan said. The attacker then detonated her explosives vest, he said.

Victims were collecting food tokens

Khan said the victims were from various parts of the Bajur tribal region who gather daily at thecentre to collect food tokens distributed by the World Food Program. Theyhad been displaced by an army offensive against Taliban militants in the region in early 2009.

Islamist militants battling the state have attacked buildings handing out humanitarian aid in Pakistan before, presumably because they are symbols of the government and Western influence.

Local government official Tariq Khan said the blast also woundedmore than 50people, some critically.

Although women rarely become suicide bombers in Pakistan, Tariq Khan and another local official, Sohail Khan, said an examination of the human remains has confirmed the bomber was a woman.

Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned the bombing and said Pakistanis are "united against them."

Bajur is on the northern tip of Pakistan's semiautonomous tribal belt, bordering Afghanistan and the so-called "settled" areas in Pakistan. It has served as a key transit point and hideout for al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

U.S. President Barack Obama strongly condemned the "outrageous"bombing.

"Killing innocent civilians outside a World Food Programme distribution point is an affront to the people of Pakistan, and to all humanity," Obama said in a statement.