Pakistan: Blast occurs outside school in northwest
The Associated Press
Monday, April 19, 2010; 4:28 AM
PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- Police say an explosion has occurred outside a school in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar.
Police official Haroon Khan says the nature of the blast was not immediately clear.
There was no immediate word on casualties.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) - An official says suspected Taliban militants in northwestern Pakistan detonated two bombs that destroyed a pair of oil tankers along a vital supply route used by NATO and U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
Local official Iqbal Khan says the twin explosions occurred in the Takhta Beg area of Khyber tribal region Monday.
No one was wounded, but the fire also engulfed a flatbed truck and nearby shops.
Alleged Taliban militants and ordinary criminals frequently attack vehicles along the supply route that runs through the famed Khyber Pass into Afghanistan.
The U.S. and NATO say their Afghan operations have felt limited impact, but they are establishing alternate routes.
washingtonpost.com
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Blast destroys NATO tankers in Pak
Peshawar, Apr 19 (PTI):
Four persons were injured today when a roadside bomb triggered a fire that destroyed two NATO oil tankers in the lawless Khyber tribal region of northwest Pakistan, an official said.
The incident occurred near Takhtabaig security check post in Khyber Agency, situated a few kilometres away from Peshawar, the capital of the North West Frontier Province.
An explosion occurred when an oil tanker was hit by a roadside bomb.
The blast triggered a fire that destroyed two tankers and gutted a few shops, said Muhammad Siddique, an official of the political administration of Khyber Agency.
Four persons injured by the blaze were taken to a nearby government hospital.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack.
Local militants from the Lashkar-e-Islam have attacked trucks and tankers carrying supplies to US and NATO forces in Afghanistan in the past.
Nearly 75 per cent of oil and food supplies and military hardware for foreign troops in Afghanistan passes through the Khyber Agency.
Blast destroys NATO tankers in Pak
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Bomb attack halts Pakistan aid work
Apr 19, 2010 09:15 AM
Aid work has ground to a halt in north western Pakistan after two suicide bombers killed more than 40 people and wounded at least 60 at a camp for homeless people.
Aid work has ground to a halt in north western Pakistan after two suicide bombers killed more than 40 people and wounded at least 60 at a camp for homeless people.About 41people died in Saturdays attack on the Kacha Pakha camp just outside Kohat city in north western Pakistan on Saturday. Yesterday seven people were killed and more than 20 wounded in a separate attack nearby.
A senior police official in the city of Kohat said a suicide bomber had driven a vehicle into the rear wall of a police station. The United Nations spoke out against Saturdays attack at the camp and said it was temporarily stopping its relief work in the Hangu and Kohat areas of the North West Frontier Province. "These were people who had fled their homes. They had suffered displacement; they'd suffered losing their homes. They'd come to the registration point considering it a safe haven. They'd come for help. They'd come for sanctuary. We mourn their loss, and condemn their killing," said Martin Mogwanja, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Pakistan.
The camp is home to about 1,000 people who have been forced out of their homes by fighting between the army and Taliban militants. More fighting in Orakzai and Kurram on the Afghan border is uprooting hundreds of thousands more people who are now heading to the camp. Kohat police chief Dilawar Khan Bangash said the motive for the bombing is not clear."It seems the purpose was to target members of the Manikhel and Baramadkhel tribes who had constituted a large percentage of those fleeing recently, he told United Nations news service, IRIN. He said the attackers, who disguised themselves by wearing loose burkas, could have been seeking revenge because those tribes had put together a militia to fight Taliban militants in their areas. Militant gangs based in Punjab province in the east took responsibility for the blasts. "We are not safe. At home we face death and when we try to find safety by leaving our homes, we confront death here too," said Kharan Khan, a 60 in Kohat. He described "scenes of mayhem and chaos" as the bombers struck an area where people were queuing to collect food rations.
Just this year, more than 500 people are estimated to have died in Militant bomb attacks across Pakistan. On Friday a suicide attack at a hospital in the south-west Pakistani city of Quetta killed at least 10 people and injured 35 more. The attacker detonated a bomb in a waiting room at a hospital where people had gathered following the fatal shooting of a Shia businessman.
Bomb attack halts Pakistan aid work — Children Charity