SHAH HASAN KHEL, Pakistan — A northwest Pakistani village that tried to resist Taliban infiltration mourned Saturday the victims of an apparent revenge suicide bombing that killed 96 residents during a volleyball game.

The attack on the outskirts of Lakki Marwat city was one of the deadliest in recent Pakistani history and sent a bloody New Year's message to Pakistanis who dare take on the armed Islamist extremists. As villagers in Shah Hasan Khel held funeral services and rescuers searched rubble for more bodies.

The suicide bomber detonated some 550 pounds of high-intensity explosives on the crowded field in the village during a volleyball tournament held Friday near a meeting of anti-Taliban elders. The elders, who had helped set up an anti-Taliban militia in the area, were probably the actual target, police said.

Lakki Marwat district is near South Waziristan, a tribal region where the army has been battling the Pakistani Taliban since October.

The military operation was undertaken with the backing of the U.S., which is eager for Pakistan to free its tribal belt of militants believed to be involved in attacks on Western troops in Afghanistan. The offensive has provoked apparent reprisal attacks that had already killed more than 500 people in Pakistan before Friday's blast.

Militants have struck all across the nuclear-armed country, and they appear increasingly willing to hit groups beyond security forces. No group claimed responsibility for Friday's blast, but that is not uncommon when many civilians are killed.

Across Pakistan's northwest, where the police force is thin, underpaid and under-equipped, various tribes have taken security into their own hands over the past two years by setting up citizen militias to fend off the Taliban. But tribal leaders who face off with the militants do so at high personal risk. Several suicide attacks have targeted meetings of anti-Taliban elders, and militants also often go after individuals.