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Subscribe to RSSA suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest outside a mosque in a Shiite neighborhood Friday in Pakistan's northwestern Kurram tribal region, killing at least 26 people, government officials said.
Three more people were killed when police shot at protesters from the Shiite community after the bombing in Parachinar, the main town in Kurram, an official said. A curfew was imposed in the town.
The bomber struck outside the mosque in a busy market after Friday prayers, in the latest attack by Sunni militants against minority Shi'ites.
Kurram, the only part of Pakistan's border region that has a significant Shiite population, has been racked by sectarian violence between Sunni and Shi'ite tribes. The Taliban and al Qaeda's virulent anti-Shiite ideology has meant years of bloody fighting.
Fazal Saeed, leader of a breakaway faction of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the latest attack in Kurram, near the Afghan border.
"We have targeted the Shiite community of Parachinar because they were involved in activities against us," he told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.
"We also warn the political administration of Parachinar to stop siding with the Shi'ite community in all our disputes."
Shiite Muslims are a minority sect of Islam, arising from a dispute over the successor to the Prophet Mohammad 1,400 years ago. Many extreme Sunni Muslims consider them apostates.
Saeed was part of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) but broke away last year after disputes with the umbrella militant group's leadership.
He is said to have close ties with the Haqqani militant group, one of the most feared factions of the Afghan Taliban.
The TTP, al Qaeda, and the Afghan Taliban movement fighting Western forces in Afghanistan are entrenched in Pakistan's northwestern tribal areas. All have been involved in anti-Shiite activities for years.
They continue to have strongholds in the region despite a series of military operations in the last few years.
Pakistan's army and air force have been conducting operations against militant groups in Kurram since the beginning of the year. Dozens have been killed in fierce fighting this month.
The blast came as Pakistan's foreign minister said it would be "preposterous" for Afghanistan to expect Islamabad to deliver the Taliban's leader to the negotiating table, as talks between the two countries on the peace process ended with little sign of progress.
The apparent gridlock shows the difficulties inherent in the peace process, which the United States is strongly pushing as a way to end the 10-year-old Afghan war and allow it to withdraw most of its combat troops by 2014 without the country further descending into chaos.
Pakistan is seen as key to the process because Taliban chief Mullah Omar and other senior commanders are believed to be based in the country. Islamabad has close historical ties to the group but has always denied that the Taliban leadership is based within its borders. Analysts say Pakistan can either help the talks or act as a spoiler.
It's unclear whether Afghan President Hamid Karzai asked for access to Omar during his current visit to Islamabad, and he made no public mention of the cleric. But he has called on Pakistan in the past to facilitate contact with the insurgent group's leaders.
Leaders from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran held a three-way summit in Islamabad over the past two days that focused on Taliban peace talks, including steps Pakistan could take to help the process, and other regional issues. The summit ended Friday.
However, Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar indicated her government was still uncertain on exactly what Afghanistan wanted, saying "they have not conveyed that clarity to us."
Karzai also seemed to indicate the process going forward was uncertain.
"What we need now is to formulate a policy that is actionable and implementable, and actually act upon it," Karzai said at a press conference featuring Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Khar's comments came as she spoke to reporters after the press conference.
The foreign minister cautioned against Kabul expecting too much in terms of Pakistan providing access to the Taliban's leaders.
"If you have unrealistic, almost ridiculous expectations, then you don't have common ground to begin with," said Khar.
Khar said that any expectation that Pakistan can deliver the Taliban's chief for talks is "not only unrealistic, but preposterous."
Pakistan and Afghanistan have long had a troubled relationship, one that grew more difficult last year when a suicide bomber assassinated former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani in Kabul. He had been serving as Afghanistan's envoy to Taliban peace talks, and Afghan officials accused Pakistan of playing a role in the killing — allegations it denied.
There have been some signs that momentum for Taliban peace talks has been growing.
The Taliban are setting up an office in the tiny Gulf state of Qatar in the first step toward formal negotiations. Also, the Obama administration is considering releasing five top Taliban leaders from the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay as a starting point for talks.
But the process has also been riddled with rumor and uncertainty.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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Ah... Muslim's killing Muslims.
The religion of peace at work.
Outside a Mosque no less.
It good to see they still manage to live down to my expectations of them.
Religion/cult of peace starts with peace and then breaks everything to pieces its followers' touch!
Sir: you are missing "love" in between!
Priceless
muslims your way of life is a failure....step out of the darkness into the light of the son !
In the Sunni vs Shiite battle, I am rooting for the Sunnis. so, good shot.
leroy212: I am an infidel. As I (ex-commie) am for oppressed people, I root out for less barbaric and bigoted Shiites.
Let us not battle beyond that between us.
In counting the dead, I can join you!
In the Sunni vs Shiite battle - I root for the Christians or any other group not Muslim - let them slaughter each other. Only 29 hmm too bad
Holy Shiite!!! Muslim on Muslim crime continues to flourish.
See also: "river, cry me."
Islam = Pig S()t
Then followers deserve the same!
This is an example of what the Iranian regime hopes to accomplish, putting brother, against brother. This has nothing to do with religion. Iran has exported vehicle/human/roadside bombs for the last 33 years or more. The goal is to create chaos, confusion, death, and destruction. Despite the failed attempts recently in Thailand, Georgia republic, and India this one was expertly carried out in Pakistan with a human suicide bomb. Iran's zealots did not want to fail in this latest attempt. ... So where do you talk with them? In a snake pit? You don't 'talk' to snakes. They don't talk back, just get a shovel and bury them. Shiites vs. Sunnis and the winner is Iran.
Demitrious, I'm not surprised LeRoy is pulling for the Al-Qaida side, but I'm wondering if you realise it was the Sunni side (Al-Qaida side, not Iranian) that did the bombing here. So, basically the side with the same religion as the Iranians is the side being bombed by the terrorists. How exactly do you think Iran was behind that? They decided to bomb themselves? Seriously, that's what you think? No wonder other nations don't take us seriously any more.
"The bomber struck outside the mosque in a busy market after Friday prayers,"
Shiites are doing a great disservice to their Allah and Islam by tolerating Sunnis’ barbaric and beastly action of being blown away near their mosque that too on a Friday.
Shiites should snatch Paki nukes and give some to Iran. Iran should nuke Saudi Sunni areas starting from Mecca/Medina!
Rest: Shiites should use them for nuking all Paki Sunni majority areas.
More and more examples of islam....the religion of peace! Cowardly bombing, killing, and of course at a place of worship! Usually it's against innocent women and children in a market-place. When will our world awake to islam being the scourge of all people and stamp out this hate filled, hideous culture? And of course it's interesting to note the response from all the American and European muslims who show no distate for boming, killing and the hate, only sit at our tables and reap the benefits of comfortable, stable governments and lifestyle. "Silence is consent"
Such a shame."close and lock the door will ya,thx"
A few minutes ago I read an article on MSNBC about NY cops checking on Muslim Student groups in the US where there have been issues of radicalization. Of course all the Civil liberties groups will be up in arms, but the reason you do things like that is to prevent things like this from happening. I'll bet these Pakistani victims and their families wish they had the benefit of police investigations being proactive to root out the perpetrators of crimes like this.
oh those peaceful stable Muslims. People need to stop harrassing them, they are such good people. So civilzed, and well meaning. Golly Gee Wiz. Nothing but sunshine and bunnies wherever they go. Spreading peace and love, no violent and oh so easy to get along with. Great senses of humor, never upset, or offended. Send California, New York, and the Democratic party to the middle east, they seem to be perfect for each other.
so do we care except it was only 29 of them?
Muslims are freaking stupid funny people-you have different sects of muslims but they kill each other-how funny-these people live like they did 1400 years ago,their so called profet Muhammad was a brutal killer and pedifile,he would attack caravans and cities kill all men by chopping off their head and take the women and kids for slaves-some man of GOD or there Allah.I like it when they kill each other because it saves us a bullet in due time.To think Obama and other government people say Islam is peaceful-are they that dam stupid or is Obama going to take our guns,default on our debt,shrink our militart then ask islamic muslim to come here with all the money they made off of us due to buying their oil and throw away the Constitution and out in Shairiah law so the people in gobernment will hope they get a pass due to saying islam is peaceful.All the arab spring was nothing but uniting arabs under muslim brotherhood who is the head of all terrorist that are islamic.The America people will revolt if they try to take our guns,with all our hunter who would be sharp shooters and there is 290 million guns in America-American troops will not take guns away from the-We The People,not enough police to do it-just think when hunters form large groups all over America-they will take America over with military with them,Just keep all muslim out of this country.There is going to be a war-Christian,Jews against Islam-it will happen and Israel is getting closer to attacking Iran because if Iran gets nukes they will give them to their proxy army-Hezablah and other terrorist groups and they may be dumb enough to strike Israel with nuke-if that happens Israel will distory all of Iran and any nation that attacks Israel-Israel has well over 200,300 nukes on missles,in subs,artillery shells,they have some of the besst fighter pilots in the world and they know how to fight a war,they have been attack 3 times with more than one country and won every one of them.That dam anti Israel Obama better help Israel when war breaks out-he is even cutting back on anti missles programs with Israel now and going to sell Egypt 150 M1A1 Abrams tanks-this is so wrong since this country is not stable and muslim brotherhood told America if you don't sell or give the tanks we will not honor the peace deal with Israel-America must never let any country black mail us but Obama has close ties with the brotherhood-don't give them one dam thing and give Israel what we had plan on given them or selling.Muslim keep killing each other because it makes me feel good.