Suicide bomber kills 18 in Pakistan's Peshawar
By Faris Ali
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - A suicide bomber blew himself up outside a court building in Peshawar on Thursday, killing 18 people, officials said, in the latest of a series of attacks on the northwestern Pakistan city.
The city, near the Afghan border, has been targeted several times since the army began an offensive against the Taliban in South Waziristan last month and militants stepped up retaliatory attacks.
"The attacker was on foot and blew himself up when guards tried to search him at the gates of the court," senior city administrator Sahibzada Anis told reporters.
The army went on the offensive in South Waziristan on the Afghan border on Oct. 17, aiming to root out militants who escalated their war against the security forces in 2007.
The militants have responded with intensified attacks in towns and cities. There have been seven suicide bomb attacks in Pakistan this month, five of them in Peshawar, and about 110 people have been killed.
The United States, weighing options for how to stem an intensifying insurgency in Afghanistan, has welcomed the offensive but is keen to see Pakistan tackle Afghan Taliban factions based in lawless enclaves along the border.
Eighteen people were killed and 34 wounded in the attack at the court complex, said hospital official and doctor Sahib Gul.
Three policemen were among the dead, said Anis. Continued...
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