The attack came on the day the country’s top civilian security official told the Associated Press that . It was the government’s first categorical confirmation of the death of the feared militant, whose passing is likely to weaken, but not vanquish, the al Qaeda-linked insurgent network he led.

The suicide bomber who attacked police in Pakistan’s Khyber tribal area Wednesday was able to get inside their vehicle before detonating his explosives, said local tribesman Izzakhana Afridi, who witnessed the bombing.

« I saw him running and jumping into the Khasadar vehicle and then an explosion pushed me down to the ground some 50 yards away, » said Afridi, using the official name of the tribal police.

Rasheed Khan, a local government official, said the blast killed 10 policemen, six civilians and one paramilitary officer.

Police official Ibrahim Khan, who survived the explosion because he was outside the vehicle, said the blast also injured about a dozen other civilians.

« I was about 30 yards away when a huge explosion occurred and I fell on the ground, » said Khan. « I looked back and found our vehicle destroyed and my colleagues in a pool of blood. »

No group has claimed responsibility, but Taliban militants often target Pakistani security forces.

Reports of Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud’s death emerged after a spate of U.S. missiles hit his stronghold in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal belt in mid-January. Mehsud was said to have died of wounds suffered in one of the strikes in the Waziristan region – another big victory for the CIA-led missile campaign that killed Mehsud’s predecessor just six months ago.

The Taliban have repeatedly denied his death, but backed off an initial promise to prove the 28-year-old was still alive. The militant group also denied his predecessor’s death for weeks until the succession question was settled.

In a response to an AP query, Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik, wrote, « Yes, he is dead. » A senior intelligence official concurred separately. Neither gave details as to when or how the militant died.

The intelligence official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record.

In late January, a tribal elder told the AP that he attended Mehsud’s funeral in the Mamuzai area of the Orakzai tribal region after Mehsud died at his in-laws’ home. Some local media reports, citing unnamed Taliban sources, said Mehsud died more recently in the Multan area of central Pakistan on his way to receive medical treatment in the southern Pakistan city of Karachi.

In the first few days after the mid-January missile strikes, the Taliban released a pair of audiotapes believed to carry Mehsud’s voice, in which he insisted he was fine. They have stopped offering additional evidence, one reason U.S. counterterrorism officials also are increasingly certain he died.

Still, Mehsud has been mistakenly reported dead before.

After his predecessor, fellow tribesman Baitullah Mehsud, died in an August missile strike, 부산 마사지 the Pakistani interior minister was among those who claimed Hakimullah was killed in a succession struggle. But the militant met with reporters, on camera, in the weeks afterward and went on to lead a surge of bomb attacks across the country that left more than 600 people dead.

Hakimullah Mehsud has been considered a particularly ruthless Taliban fighter with grand ambitions.

He appeared in a video with a Jordanian suicide bomber who killed seven CIA employees in eastern Afghanistan. After that Dec. 30 attack, the U.S. temporarily ramped up its missile campaign in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

There are reports that commanders already are lining up to vie for his position as Taliban chief.

Among the potential successors are Waliur Rehman, the deputy Taliban commander who oversaw operations in the South Waziristan region. The Pakistani army is waging an offensive in that Afghan border area against the group that has damaged much of its infrastructure.

Another name being floated is that of Maulvi Toofan, a Taliban commander reported to be based in Orakzai, a region gaining importance as militants flee there from South Waziristan.

Malik, the interior minister, also said Wednesday that Pakistan is investigating reports that Qari Hussain, another Hakimullah deputy, had also been killed. If confirmed, Hussain’s death would be a significant blow to the group because he was in charge of training suicide bombers and had close ties to other militant networks.

Analysts say a potential succession struggle in the wake of Mehsud’s death could temporarily weaken the Pakistani Taliban but not cripple its ability to carry out deadly attacks.

The Taliban’s campaign of bomb attacks in towns and cities across Pakistan had eased in recent weeks, although 34 people were killed in twin bombings in Karachi last Friday.

Also Wednesday, a Pakistani army Cobra helicopter gunship crashed in the remote Tirah Valley of Pakistan’s Khyber tribal region near the Afghan border, army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said.

Another army official said the helicopter’s pilot and gunner are missing and feared dead. He said the crash appeared to have been caused by either bad weather or a mechanical failure. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s decision follows his sweeping victory at the polls last month over his former army chief Gen. Sarath Fonseka who had defected to the opposition.

Fonseka, who last year led government troops in their crushing defeat of Tamil Tiger rebels, was dragged out of his office Monday by military police and arrested on charges he plotted to overthrow the government while running the army. He has repeatedly denied similar accusations lobbed at him since the election.

One-time allies, Fonseka and Rajapaksa were both considered heroes by Sri Lanka’s Sinhalese majority for ending the quarter-century civil war. However, their relationship deteriorated after hostilities ended, and Fonseka led the opposition’s attempts to unseat the president in an election last month. Rajapaksa won the election by 17 percentage points.

The new parliamentary poll will choose the country’s next 225 lawmakers, said a senior government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government policy. No date has been set.

If the presidential poll is anything to go by, the contest will be another bitter race between the government and the opposition. Rajapaksa’s party is hoping to secure a two-third majority in the country’s parliament, giving them the absolute majority and entrenching their grip on power.

Fonseka’s arrest leaves a mix of opposition parties – from ultranationalist Sinhalese Marxists to former Tamil separatists – in a difficult spot.

Fonseka’s wife Anoma Fonseka said Tuesday the former army chief has been cut off from family and friends and is being held at a secret location, though the government denied that.

After announcing Monday that Fonseka would face a court martial on sedition charges, the government heaped more accusations on him. A statement Tuesday said the former army chief’s reported call for anyone who committed war crimes during the conflict to be prosecuted showed he was « hell-bent on betraying the gallant armed forces of Sri Lanka. »

More than 7,000 civilians were killed in the final months of the fighting that crushed the rebels last spring. Human rights groups have accused the military, which was led by Fonseka at the time, of shelling hospitals and heavily populated civilian areas during the fighting, and the rebels of holding the local population as human shields.

« It seems the government is preparing for the next parliamentary election, » he said at a gathering of opposition leaders, where they also announced a countrywide protest, starting Wednesday.

(Left: An opposition party supporter holds a placard during a protest in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Feb. 3, 2010. Thousands of opposition supporters took to the streets of Sri Lanka’s capital Wednesday to protest the results of the recent presidential election, which they say was marred by fraud.)

Fonseka’s wife, Anoma, told reporters Tuesday that she has not been allowed to meet her husband or told where he is being held.

« He was dragged like an animal, » Anoma said. « Is this what he gets for ending a 30-year war? »

« He never wanted to topple the government, while he was in uniform. While he wore the uniform, he never talked about politics, » she said.

Military spokesman Maj. Gen. Prasad Samarasinghe denied that Fonseka is cut off from family or friends.

« Family members are allowed to see him, and he has been allowed to obtain legal advice also, » he said, adding that the former commander is not even in a cell.

Since the Jan. 26 election, Fonseka has complained that the government was attempting to arrest him on trumped up charges. Even as returns came in, troops surrounded the hotel where he was staying, in a massive show of force. Last week, security forces raided his office and arrested at least 15 of his staff. A number of serving military officers, which the government said were considered to be a threat to national security, have been fired.

The opposition has rejected the results of the presidential election, accusing the government of stealing more than 1 million of Fonseka’s votes during the tallying process, and 천안 안마 said it will challenge them in court.

It has also accused the government of a campaign of threats, intimidation and illegal imprisonment of its supporters and activists.By Associated Press Writer Fisnik Abrashi