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Afghanistan
49 killed in Peshawar kaboom
2009-10-09
At least 49 people have been killed in a bombing in a crowded area of the north-western Pakistani city of Peshawar, officials say. More than 100 people have also been injured in the suspected suicide bombing, a regional minister said. Officials said a vehicle laden with explosives had been detonated near the city's Khyber Bazaar. Friday's explosion was the latest in a series of recent bombings across north-western Pakistan.

ANALYSIS
M Ilyas Khan, BBC News, Islamabad
The renewed Taliban campaign coincides with increased speculation about the start of a major ground offensive in South Waziristan - the epicentre of militancy in Pakistan. This shows a change of tactics. Instead of spectacular attacks against military, police, sectarian or Western targets, militants are focusing on low-intensity bombings to cause general terror. The bomber used less than 50kg of explosives, laced with bearings and shells to cause maximum damage in a crowded civilian location. It could also indicate a decline in the ability of the militants to penetrate high-value targets with large bombs.
It comes as the Pakistani army prepares an operation against the Taliban in the tribal region of South Waziristan.

TV footage showed what appeared to be the charred frame of a bus destroyed by the explosion. Many of the victims of the blast were thought to be passengers and police said this included a number of children. The remains of other vehicles were strewn in the road.

Officials said they thought a suicide bomber travelling in a car had carried out the attack. "He blew himself up as the car was next to a passenger bus passing through the market," senior police officer, Shafqat Malik, told the BBC.

It is the deadliest attack in Pakistan since March when a suicide bomber destroyed a crowded mosque in Jamrud, killing at least 50 people. But doctors at the Lady Reading hospital, close to the blast site, warned that the toll could rise as many of the injured were in a critical condition.

Correspondents say there have been increasingly frequent militant attacks after a lull following the death in a missile strike of top Taliban commander, Baitullah Mehsud.

The blast comes days after a deadly bombing at a UN office in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, and less than two weeks after a double suicide car bombing in Peshawar. The BBC's Aleem Maqbool reports from Islamabad that the Taliban has been threatening to carry out attacks unless operations against the militant group were stopped.
Posted by:tipper

#1  That's the kind of news I like to read.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2009-10-09 05:25  

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