PESHAWAR: A suicide car bombing targeting Pakistani troops killed 41 people today, the fourth grisly militant attack in just over a week, as the Taliban pledged to mobilise fighters across the country for more strikes.

The Taliban also claimed responsibility for the

22-hour weekend attack

on the nation’s heavily fortified army headquarters, saying a cell from Pakistan’s most populous province carried out the raid.

The claim that a Punjabi faction of the Pakistani Taliban was behind that strike is a sign the insurgents have forged links with militants outside their main strongholds in Pashtun areas close to the Afghan border, increasing their potency.

The army, however, maintained it was launched from South Waziristan - where the military is preparing for what will likely be a long and bloody offensive against the major base of the Taliban along the frontier.

In advance of that offensive, the militants have launched a wave of attacks across the country.

In the latest strike, a suicide bomber detonated a car packed with explosives near an army vehicle in a market in the northwest Shangla district, provincial Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said.

The attack killed 41,

including six security officers, and wounded 45 other people, he said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

“Such attacks cannot deter us from the offensive against the militants,” Hussain said. “We will continue our fight till the death of the last terrorist.” Shangla lies east of Swat, which has been the focus of an intense military operation against the Taliban. The army says it has largely cleared the valley of the insurgents, but the bombing demonstrated their continuing ability to mount deadly attacks there. Many Taliban are believed to have melted into the rural areas or gone to neighbouring districts.

The recent string of bloody attacks began last week when a suicide bomber blew himself up inside a heavily guarded UN aid agency in the heart of the capital, Islamabad, killing five staffers. On Friday, a suspected militant detonated an explosives-laden car in the middle of a busy market in the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing 53 people.

Those attacks were followed by the raid on army headquarters in the city of Rawalpindi on Saturday. Military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said the militants were hoping to seize senior army officials and trade them for their jailed comrades. “Their main focus was the release of their leaders,” he said. The army also intercepted audio of deputy Taliban leader Waliur Rehman getting an update on the attack, Abbas said.