At least 12 people, security officials among them, were killed and more than 70 injured Friday morning when two suicide car bombings targeted the offices of an intelligence agency and a police station in north-western Pakistan, officials said, according to dpa. The bombings were the latest in the string of attacks on security installations and civilian targets since the government troops launched an offensive against Taliban militants in the South Waziristan tribal region near the Afghan border in mid-October. A suicide bomber detonated his explosives near the regional headquarters of the military"s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) in Peshawar, the capital of North-West Frontier Province, killing nine people and injuring 55 more. The blast, caused by around 200 kilograms of explosives, according to the bomb disposal experts, destroyed much of the three-storey building located in the city"s tightly guarded Khyber Road area. Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the provincial information minister, said the nine dead included seven security personnel. "Two people are still buried under the debris," he told reporters. The blast damaged dozens of vehicles and smashed the windowpanes of buildings in the area. "Military guards fired at the vehicle at a checkpoint but the bomber kept driving and detonated the explosives near the building," a police officer said. An hour later, a suicide car bomb exploded near a police station in Bannu, around 130 kilometres south of Peshawar, severely damaging the building. "Three policemen have been martyred while 13 are injured," said the district police chief, Iqbal Marwat. Three suspects in police custody were also injured. Marwat said the bomber detonated his explosives when the police guards challenged him around 40 metres from the building. Taliban militants have killed more than 300 people in suicide strikes and brazen raids at crowded markets and security offices since mid-October in retaliation for the military offensive in their heartland of South Waziristan. Pakistani officials have said the intensified attacks would not shake their resolve to continue the assault in South Waziristan, where the militants "are on the run." Taliban claim they were strategically retreating to the mountains and side valleys for a "long guerrilla war." "We are in an open war with Taliban. Sometimes they would win and sometimes we would succeed," Hussain said. "But we will continue our struggle till the complete annihilation of the terrorists." According to the army-reported casualties, at least 522 militants have been eliminated in the operation, while 51 soldiers have also died. The figures could not be verified independently. Waziristan is regarded a hub of global terrorism, with al-Qaeda members using the rugged mountainous territory to plan and carry out attacks on the Western forces operating in Afghanistan.
