Fifteen killed in suicide blast in northwest Pakistan
A suicide bomber blew up a bus in northwest Pakistan on Wednesday, killing 15 people and injuring dozens of others, officials said.
The blast took place close to the border regions with Afghanistan, the stronghold of Muslim militants threatening the stability of nuclear-armed Pakistan.
The bomber destroyed a small passenger bus at a station in a market area of Kohat city. Many of the victims were onboard the vehicle. It was unclear whether the attacker was inside the bus.
Pakistan’s U.S.-backed government faces Taliban insurgents who have sustained a campaign of suicide bombings in defiance of a series of military offensives launched last year against their strongholds in the northwest.
"A boy between the age of 18 and 20, who was carrying about 6 kg (13 lbs) of explosives, carried out the attack," said Dilawar Bangash, police chief in the town of Kohat, where Wednesday’s bombing took place. Sixteen people were wounded, hospital officials said.
Many shops were destroyed.
"The bus, which was filled with passengers, was about to take off when a teenage boy came near the door of the bus and blew himself up," witness Inayat Orakzai said.
The Pakistani Taliban movement, which is linked to al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility for a twin suicide bombing on the office compound of a government official in the Mohmand region of the northwest on Monday, which killed at least 40 people.
The bombers attacked while a meeting on ways of strengthening the tribal militias set up to help the government fight militants was under way.
Secret U.S. diplomatic cables released by the WikiLeaks website have raised fresh questions about threats posed by Pakistani militant groups, both to the Islamabad government and its ally Washington.
In one cable dated Feb. 21, 2009, former U.S. ambassador to Islamabad Anne Patterson predicted it would take 10-15 years to defeat a "witches brew" of militants in Pakistan’s northwest ethnic Pashtun tribal areas on the Afghan border.