PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN — With more than 70 people killed in weekend bombings and a controversial cease-fire annulled in Pakistan's volatile frontier zone, the specter loomed Sunday of an all-out war between Islamic militants and the U.S.-backed government of President Pervez Musharraf.
In the latest suicide attack, a bomber blew himself up Sunday at a police recruitment center near Pakistan's tribal region, killing at least 26 people and injuring nearly 60 others.
The violence comes on the heels of last week's government storming of a radical mosque in the capital, Islamabad, a clash that left more than 100 people dead.
On Sunday, militants in North Waziristan, one of the tribal areas, announced they were scrapping a 10-month-old cease-fire accord with the government. That deal was already in tatters and had been widely criticized since its inception, but the militants' decision to end it indicated they wanted no impediment to an all-out fight with government forces.
The turmoil has heightened speculation that Musharraf, who is also the chief of Pakistan's military, might cite the growing threat posed by militants as justification for declaring a state of emergency and putting off elections scheduled for this year.
Before the mosque raid, Musharraf had been under pressure from a grass-roots democracy movement to renounce his army post and allow free and fair balloting. But public sentiment indicated support for his decision to use force on those holed up inside the mosque, which had become the center of a vigilante-style, anti-vice campaign.
That support has given the Pakistani leader something of a respite from the previous political crisis, but it also plunged him into what is shaping up as his government's most serious confrontation in years with militant groups. The groups have enjoyed the longtime patronage of Pakistan's intelligence establishment although Musharraf aligned his government with the United States after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Islamic militant groups, most of them based in the lawless region bordering Afghanistan, have vowed to avenge the assault on the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque.
But the frontier zone has long been the focus of U.S. intelligence concerns about the regrouping and rearming of Al Qaeda and Taliban elements.
The Bush administration, which has expressed support for Musharraf during the mosque raid and months of democracy protests, offered new backing Sunday on his deployment of thousands of troops in and near the tribal areas.
