PESHAWAR: Three suicide attackers, including a woman, attacked a police station in northwestern Pakistan, killing 13 people on Friday while army airstrikes killed a dozen suspected militants in a Taleban stronghold ahead of an expected ground offensive.
The bombing in Peshawar was the latest in a surge of terrorist attacks over the last 11 days that has killed more than 150 people and underscored the power of the Taleban, who have warned the army against launching any operation in the militants’ base close to the Afghan border.
In Islamabad, the army chief met with the prime minister and other political leaders for talks that included plans for an offensive in South Waziristan. After the meeting, Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira vowed the country’s leaders would “take all steps to eradicate terrorism and extremism from the country,” but he refused to discuss military plans.
Friday’s twin bombings targeted a heavily fortified police station in Peshawar, the main city in the northwest.
One attacker drove a car filled with explosives to the main gate of the police station, as a motorcycle carrying a man and a woman pulled up behind it, Peshawar police chief Liaquat Ali Khan said.
The woman jumped off and ran toward a nearby housing complex where army officers live, while the man smashed the motorcycle into the car, which exploded into a huge fireball, he said. Police shot at the woman, who detonated explosives she was wearing.
The blast destroyed part of the police station and a mosque next to it. The explosion killed 13 people, including three police officers, two women and two children, said Gul Khan, a local police officer. Another 15 people were wounded.
Meanwhile, suspected Taleban militants launched a rocket attack killing three Pakistani soldiers and wounding four at a military camp in a remote tribal area on Friday, officials said.
