PARACHINAR, Pakistan: At least 15 militants died in a shootout Saturday between the supporters of two Pakistani Taliban commanders near the Afghan border, an official said. Separately, a planted bomb partially exploded as it was being defused next to a Red Cross office in Pakistan's south, but no one was hurt, police said. The incidents underscored the violence scarring Pakistan as it struggles to battle militants who loathe Islamabad's alliance with Washington. Government official Mir Alam said several insurgents also were wounded during Saturday's gunbattle in the Orakzai tribal region. Such clashes are common in Orakzai, where an unspecified number of insurgents and their commanders have been battling an army offensive. Bomb disposal experts were alerted to the presence of the explosive device and were trying to defuse it when it partially exploded outside the Red Cross office in Karachi, police said. The outer wall of the facility was slightly damaged, said Tahir Naveed, a senior police official. Witnesses reported seeing two men on a motorbike leave the bomb, which contained about 2.5 kg of explosives, at the gate of the office, said Raja Umar Khattab. A spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross said it had received no warning of an attack. “We have no idea what it was,” Sitara Jabeen said. “We are just waiting for the details of the police investigation. Fortunately, nobody was hurt.” Meanwhile, a bomb failed to explode outside the international Red Cross office in Pakistan's largest city of Karachi on Saturday, police said. A small blast did take place from the detonator of the home-made bomb, which two motorcyclists left in a trash bin outside the main gate of the International Committee of the Red Cross office in Karachi's Bahadurabad area. “A detonator of a locally-made bomb exploded, but it failed to explode the bomb,” senior police investigator Omar Khitab told reporters. “There were no casualties or damage,” he added.
