Car Bomb in Northwest Pakistan Kills 16

VOA News 07 September 2010

A car bomb ripped through a police complex in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, killing at least 16 people and wounding more than 50 others, according to Pakistani officials.

Tuesday's blast took place in the town of Kohat in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province and collapsed several homes in a police residential area. Rescuers pulled victims from the rubble, with many women and children among the dead.

Officials say the attack took place as families were breaking their daily fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

On Monday, 19 people, including police officers and children, were killed in a suicide car bombing on a police station in the northwestern town of Lakki Marwat.

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for Monday's bombing and has threatened more suicide attacks on security forces. A Taliban spokesman told reporters Tuesday the militant group will target security forces because the Pakistani government is allowing the United States to carry out drone attacks in the northwestern tribal region.

The Pakistani Taliban also took responsibility for last week's suicide bombing during a Shi'ite rally in the southwestern city of Quetta that killed 65 people on Friday. Two days earlier, a suicide attack killed 35 people during a Shi'ite procession in the eastern city of Lahore.

There had been a weeks-long lull in militant attacks in Pakistan after heavy monsoon rains drenched parts of the country and caused massive flooding in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, central Punjab and southern Sindh province.

The United States recently added the Pakistani Taliban, also known as the Tehrik-e-Taliban, to its blacklist of foreign terrorist organizations. The U.S. also has filed an arrest warrant for the group's leaders.

Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.