At least 10 policemen were killed Sunday in a suicide bombing that targeted a group of law enforcers near a rally of hardline Islamists marking the anniversary of the storming of the Red Mosque in Pakistan's capital, officials said according to DPA. "It was a targeted attack at security forces carried out by a suicide bomber," Islamabad's deputy commissioner Rana Abdul Jabbar said. He confirmed 11 deaths but some media reports put the death toll at 19 and numbers of injured at more than 40 while citing hospital sources. Nine of the killed were policemen, Geo news channel said. The blast occurred shortly after thousands of Islamists concluded the rally that commemorated the first anniversary of the deadly July 10, 2007 "Operation Silence" against the heavily armed extremists entrenched in the mosque. Some three dozen police were deployed at a security checkpoint a few hundred meters from the mosque and close to a police station. "A young man walked from behind the bushes and blew himself up as he approached the group of policemen from the anti-terror squad," a security official said. Rehman Malik, a top official in the Interior Ministry, confirmed the attack was a suicide bombing.
