Five killed in Pakistan car bomb
The car bomb attack occurred in northwest Pakistan
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Saturday, 04, Aug 2007 11:29
At least five people have been killed in a car bomb attack at a busy bus station in northwestern Pakistan.
Staff at a hospital in Parachinar, where the blast occurred, have said that 31 people were also injured in the suspected suicide attack.
Today's bombing came after clashes between soldiers and militants in neighbouring North Waziristan. Pakistan's government remains under increasing pressure from the US to crack down on Taliban and al-Qaida insurgents thought to be hiding in the country's tribal regions.
In the latest violence an attacker apparently rammed a car laden with explosives into another vehicle at Parachinar's bus station, according to local police official Mohammed Kamal.
The blast, a suspected suicide bomb attack, occurred close to a bus that was packed with passengers, he told the Associated Press news agency.
"According to our information, it was a suicide attack, and the body parts of the attacker are being collected," Mr Kamal said.
Earlier Pakistan's army said that four of its soldiers and ten militants had been killed in a pre-dawn fighting at a security checkpoint in a remote northwestern tribal region.
The gun battle, which occurred near the village of Dosali in North Waziristan, was prompted by an attack on the checkpoint by pro-Taliban militants, an army spokesman revealed.
Militants fired around 50 rockets at the checkpoint at around 03:00 local time (23:00 BST), confirmed major general Waheed Arshad, who said that insurgents fought soldiers for about two hours before fleeing into nearby mountains.
In a separate attack Islamic militants reportedly fired eight rockets at another checkpoint near Miran Shah, the main town in North Waziristan, but the incident near the Afghan border resulted in no casualties.
Violence in Pakistan has been on the increase since the country's military raided a radical mosque in the capital Islamabad last month in order to bring an end to a siege there.
Around 102 people were killed at the city's Red Mosque during the siege and subsequent military assault on the building.