Oct 23, 2009, 14:03 GMT
Islamabad - Explosions rocked Pakistan's troubled north-western region and a garrison town Friday, killing at least 26 people, mostly civilians, officials and media reports said.
Security officials inspect the site of a car bomb blast in Peshawar, the capital of North-West EPA/ARSHAD ARBAB
Also Friday, 13 militants and two soldiers were killed during an ongoing military offensive against the Taliban in the lawless tribal district of South Waziristan.
A suicide bomber killed seven people and wounded more than a dozen outside the Pakistan Air Force's main production and maintenance facility in the eastern province of Punjab, police said.
The attacker, who was on a bicycle, blew himself up when he was stopped at a checkpoint near the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex in the garrison town of Kamra, located close to the restive North-West Frontier Province.
'Seven people have been killed and 14 others injured in the blast that took place at around 7:30 am [0130 GMT],' local police chief Fakhar Sultan Raja said.
Two of the dead were air force personnel and the others were civilians, Raja said.
Friday's assault was likely to spark concern among some defence experts in the West because some analysts said they believe Pakistan might be keeping jet fighters that can carry nuclear warheads at the base in Kamra.
The only nuclear-armed Islamic state has asserted that its atomic arsenal, which is kept at undisclosed locations, is safe.
'We have confidence in the Pakistani government and military's control over nuclear weapons,' US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said this month.
Hours after the suicide attack, a remote-controlled car bomb exploded outside a restaurant in an upmarket neighbourhood of Peshawar, capital of the militancy-plagued North-West Frontier Province.
The blast did not cause any fatalities, but nine people were injured, hospital authorities said.
'None of the injured are in critical condition,' a spokesman for the Hayatabad Medical Complex told reporters.
Television footage showed damaged buildings and a destroyed car surrounded by the mangled remains of the exploded vehicle.
The attacks were the latest in a series of bombings and raids on security and civilian targets that have killed nearly 200 people in October alone as Pakistani forces press ahead with a major offensive against the Taliban in South Waziristan, which borders Afghanistan.
More than 30,000 Pakistani ground troops launched the South Waziristan operation, code-named Path to Deliverance, on Saturday to eliminate Taliban and al-Qaeda sanctuaries there.
An army statement on Friday said 13 militants, including six al-Qaeda-linked Uzbek fighters, died in the latest clashes. Two soldiers also perished and seven were injured.
Seven days of fighting have left 142 rebels dead, according to the military. The militants have put up stiff resistance by employing guerrilla tactics, taking advantage of the difficult terrain.
Hundreds of Pakistani soldiers, supported by intense air and artillery strikes, have not been able to take over Kotkai, the hometown of Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud after days of fighting.
Pakistani forces have moved into South Waziristan three times since 2004 but suffered heavy casualties. Each time, troops retreated after controversial peace deals that left the militants even stronger.
Elsewhere, one civilian was killed Friday when a rocket hit a market in the north-western garrison town of Kohat, the private Geo News television channel said.
At least 18 civilians died when a landmine exploded next to a bus in Pakistan's Mohmand tribal district near the Afghan border, according to media reports.
Twelve women and four children were among the dead while six more people were injured, Geo said.
A security official in the region confirmed that a bus carrying people to a marriage function hit a mine in Soran village. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, did not give a casualty count.
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