laden car exploded Saturday in northwest Pakistan as police tried to pull a body from it, authorities said, killing eight people amid growing international concern over the nuclear-armed country's stability. Two other bombings killed seven people elsewhere in the northwest. Separately, Pakistani officials said they were investigating reports that a pilotless US drone had crashed elsewhere in a northwest tribal region. The drones are believed to be operated by the CIA and often launch missile strikes against militant targets in Pakistan. The bombs came days after gunmen brazenly attacked Sri Lanka's cricket team in eastern Pakistan and preceded planned anti-government rallies involving the main opposition party, whose leader was recently barred from elected office. Militants have staged numerous attacks against security forces near the Afghan border, including a roadside bomb that killed three civilians and wounded four troops Saturday in the town of Darra Adam Khel. Still, the strike that killed seven policemen and a bystander near the main northwest city of Peshawar appeared to be the first to use a body as a lure. Local police chief Rahim Shah said police went to the Badaber area after an unknown caller told them a body was in a parked car. Residents and police recently evicted militants from the area, prompting threats of retaliation. “They found the white car. They also saw a body inside, but when they were pulling it out, the car bomb went off,” Shah said. Also Saturday, a suicide bomber killed four people and wounded five others at a mosque in the remote Tirah village in Khyber, a tribal region overlooking the Afghan frontier, government official Sadiq Khan said. The mosque served as a headquarters for Ansarul Islam, a militant group that is rivals with another extremist outfit known as Lashkar-e-Islam, Khan said. The US has recently escalated its use of missile strikes against militants in Pakistan, prompting official Pakistani protests. The pilotless drones that launch the missiles often target spots in South Waziristan tribal region, a major militant stronghold from where the reports of the crash emanated Saturday.
