SUCIDE BOMBER S ATTACKED PAKISTANI UNIVERSITY, KILL 4 WOUNDED 18

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Suicide bombers attacked an Islamic university popular with foreigners in Pakistan's capital Tuesday, killing four students in apparent retaliation for an escalating army offensive on a Taliban and al-Qaida stronghold near the Afghan border.

• An Associated Press reporter close to the battle zone in South Waziristan met a group of Taliban fighters who challenged army claims of progress in the four-day assault, saying they had pushed soldiers back from the strategic town of Kotkai.
• Intelligence officials also said the army had been repelled from the town after being close to taking it. They asked that their names not be used for operational reasons.
• The suicide bombers hit a faculty building and a women's cafeteria at the International Islamic University, where nearly half the students are women and hundreds are foreigners.
• The blasts, which left bits of flesh and body parts strewn on the floor, killed two male and two female students and wounded at least 18 others. The two attackers were also killed, officials said.
• No group claimed responsibility for the attack on what some people thought was a surprising target for Islamist extremists, but the president of the university and authorities said they believed it was the work of militants in the northwest.