25 KILLED IN A SUCIDE BOMB EXPLOSION IN PAKISTAN

HANGU, Pakistan - A suicide bomber in a pickup truck detonated his explosives near several government offices in northwest Pakistan on Thursday, killing at least 26 people, in the latest violence to hit the country since the U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

More than 50 people, including six officers, were also injured in the blast near a building housing the local courts in the town, according to the Hangu administration officials.

• The officials raised the death toll as rescue operations continued in the area which was cordoned off by security forces. Police and media reports said a vehicle packed with explosive was used in the Hangu attack.
• The driver steered the vehicle into a building in the area, the reports said. The reports quoted a senior police official as saying up to 450kg of explosives were used in the bombing.
• The explosion destroyed more than a dozen shops and damaged buildings in the area, police said.
• The attack in Hangu town in the southern part of Khyber Pakthunkhwa province came a day after a suicide bomber in an vehicle packed with explosives destroyed a police station building on Wednesday in the provincial capital, Peshawar, killing eight people and injuring 39.

Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan had claimed responsibility for the Peshawar bombing as well as a number of previous attacks in the country which includes a further raid last weekend by militants on a naval airbase in the southern port city of Karachi in which 10 military personnel were killed and two surveillance aircraft destroyed.

Source: Agency