Village defiant after attack by Taliban

SHAH HASAN KHEL, Pakistan: Tribal elders in a Pakistani village where a suicide car bomber killed nearly 100 people insist that residents will keep defying the Taliban, even as the bloodshed laid bare the risks facing the citizens' militias that make up a key piece of Pakistan's arsenal against extremism.

A new blast yesteday from roadside bomb struck a vehicle carrying a group of anti-Taliban tribal elders in Pakistan's volatile northwest, killing two.

The New Year's Day attack on the northwest village of Shah Hasan Khel was one of the deadliest in a surge of bombings that has killed more than 600 across Pakistan since October. Police believe the attacker meant to detonate his 250 kg of explosives at a meeting of tribesmen who supervise an anti-Taliban militia. Instead, the blast went off at a nearby outdoor volleyball court, killing at least 96 people.