The death toll from a suicide bombing against government-backed tribal elders fighting Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants in northwest Pakistan has risen to 22, officials said Friday. A suicide attacker blew himself up on Thursday as the elders met in Batmalai, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) northeast of Khar, the main town in the semi-autonomous Bajaur district bordering Afghanistan. "Five more people died overnight in different hospitals raising the death toll in the attack to 22," local police official Fazal-i-Rabi said. Security has been tightened across Bajaur since the attack, he added.