Death toll in Pakistan suicide bombing rises to 15

Sun Nov 15, 2009, 2:40 am ET

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) –

The death toll from a suicide car bombing at a police checkpoint in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar rose to 15 on Sunday, police and administrative officials said.

The bomber detonated his cache of explosives Saturday as police tried to stop and search his vehicle at a checkpost in the city, which sits on the edge of the Taliban-infested tribal belt and has been beset by suicide attacks.

"The death toll has risen to 15. Twenty-one injured people are still being treated in the hospitals," said senior Peshawar police official Karim Khan.

Peshawar district administration chief Sahibzada Anis confirmed the toll in the blast, the fourth suicide attack in beleaguered Peshawar in a week.

"Four critically injured people including a child succumbed to their injuries in hospitals," Anis told AFP.

The Taliban have claimed responsibility for Saturday's blast and a suicide bombing which killed 17 people Friday at the Peshawar headquarters of the powerful Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) agency.

The devastating attacks come as Pakistani troops press on with their most ambitious offensive yet against Taliban militants in mountain strongholds in South Waziristan on the Afghan border.

Militants have warned of more strikes to come to avenge the military push.

The most devastating bomb attack in Pakistan in two years killed at least 118 people in a crowded Peshawar market on October 28.

Suicide Attack Kills 10 in Pakistan's Peshawar

    PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Nov. 14, 2009 (Xinhua) --

At least 10 people were killed in a suicide attack on a police post in Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar on Saturday, police said.

    City Police Chief Liaquat Ali Khan said that 20 others were also injured in the attack at a police check post.

    Khan said that the police on suspicion stopped the car at the check post but the bomber exploded his device when the police started search. He said the bomber wanted to take the bomb to other place but the police foiled the attempt and saved the city from a major disaster.

    District Coordination Officer Sahibzada Anis said the bomber came in the car from the nearby tribal region of Bara and detonated his bomb at Pishtakhara, an entry point to the city and a busy locality in the outskirts.

    Doctors said that two children and two policemen were among those killed.

    Anis official said that the injured were shifted to three hospitals in the city.

    No group claimed responsibility for the attack but the government blames such attacks on Taliban militants.

    Ambulances from the government-run hospitals and private relief agencies rushed to the site and shifted the injured to hospitals.

    The attack damaged several vehicles in the square and people said that the explosion was heard in the whole city.

    A witness said that it was darkness in the blast site and he saw injured people and police men lying in the square.

    Experts from the bomb disposal squad said that about 50 kg of explosives were used in the blast.

    It was the sixth attack in Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province, in a week, which has killed around 70 people, according to police figures.

    Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani strongly condemned the terrorist attack in Peshawar. They said the government will speed up efforts to wipe out extremists and terrorists from the country.

    Suicide attacks and bomb blasts have increased in Pakistan, particularly in the northwest, after the security forces have launched major operation against the militants in South Waziristan tribal region last month.

    The army said on Saturday that seven more militants have been killed in the ongoing operation in South Waziristan.