Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan--The Pakistani Taliban have claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed at least 43 Shiite Muslims in southwest Pakistan on Friday. The attack sharply drove up the toll of sectarian assaults in a country battered by massive flooding. Pakistani Taliban commander Qari Hussain Mehsud tells The Associated Press that though they are fighting the US and the Pakistani government, "Shiites are also our target." Pakistani intelligence officials say that elsewhere in Pakistan's restive tribal regions a suspected US missile strike killed at least five people in an area controlled by the Haqqani network. The group is battling American and NATO forces in neighboring Afghanistan alongside the Taliban. Two intelligence officials say three missiles hit a house in a village near Miran Shah, the main town in North Waziristan, on Friday evening. They say the identity of the slain is not yet clear. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information to the media.
