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Women, Kids Killed in Pakistan Bombing 09/07 12:24
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) -- A car bomb ripped through a police compound in a
northwestern Pakistani city on Tuesday, killing 14 women and children and three
officers, the latest in a string of attacks proving that Islamist militants
remain a potent force in the country.
The dead were the wives and children of police officers, said Khalid
Omarzai, the city's top government official. Another 94 people were wounded, he
said, adding that they had been taken to hospitals after rescuers cleared
rubble of over two dozen collapsed houses and shops.
The complex in the garrison city of Kohat houses officers' homes, a training
facility and a commercial area.
Officer Mohammad Arif said there was a huge explosion in the residential
area of the compound soon after the evening breaking of the daily fast during
the holy month of Ramadan. Power to the area was cut, forcing emergency workers
to search for victims in the dark, he said.
Kohat, the major town on the road between the provincial capital of Peshawar
and several tribal areas, has been the scene of several militant attacks this
year. In April, two burqa-clad suicide bombers attacked refugees lined up to
register for food and other relief supplies in the district, killing 41 people
and wounding dozens more.
"This city is a war zone. We would always expect such attacks," said
Omarzai, the government official.
The Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for a series of recent
attacks across the nation aimed at destabilizing the country and weakening a
civilian government already struggling with a massive flooding that has
displaced millions and caused widespread destruction.
The deadliest have targeted minority Shiite Muslims. A suicide bombing
killed at least 65 Shiite Muslims at a procession in the southwestern city of
Quetta on Friday. Two days earlier, a triple suicide attack killed 35 people at
a Shiite ceremony in the eastern city of Lahore.
On Monday, a Taliban suicide bomber detonated a car in an alley behind a
police station in a strategically important town in northwestern Pakistan,
killing at least 17 police and civilians in an explosion that shattered the
station and neighboring homes.
About 40 people were wounded in the attack in Lakki Marwat, which sits on
the main road between Punjab province, Pakistan's largest and most prosperous,
and the North and South Waziristan tribal regions.
Meanwhile, two roadside bombs Tuesday wounded four police officers in the
northwestern district of Hangu, said police official Gul Jamal.
(CZ)
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