PAKISTAN AIR BASE COMPLEX BLASTS KILL 24

ISLAMABAD – A suicide bomber killed seven people near a major air force complex in northwest Pakistan on Friday, while an explosion killed 24 on a bus heading to wedding elsewhere in the region, the latest in a surge of militant attacks this month.

• The bloodshed has coincided with the run-up and first week of a major army offensive in a Taliban and al-Qaida stronghold along the Afghan border. About 200 people have died as the insurgents have shown they can strike in a variety of ways and places in the nuclear-armed, U.S.-allied nation.
• The Pakistan Aeronautical Complex at Kamra is the country's major air force maintenance and research hub.
• Some foreign military experts have mentioned it as a possible place to keep planes that can carry nuclear warheads, but the army, which does not reveal where its nuclear-related facilities are, strongly denies that the facility is tied to the program in any way.
• A lone suicide bomber on a bicycle blew himself up at a checkpoint on a road leading to the complex, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) from the capital, Islamabad. Police officer Akbar Abbas blamed the Taliban for the attack.
• The seven dead included two troops. Some 13 people were wounded.
• Hours later, a blast struck the bus, which was traveling in the Mohmand tribal region. Four women and three children were among the 17 killed, said Zabit Khan, a local government official, who said the exact cause of the blast was still not certain.

Source: AP