Pakistan's Strife Grows as New Gov't Waits in the Wings

A series of airstrikes on a Pakistan compound believed to be sheltering Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters killed at least 16 today, AFP reports, a day before the country's incoming government is to be sworn in. The declining security comes after a bomb exploded last night in an Islamabad restaurant crowded with foreigners, killing at least one person and wounding 11 others, including five Americans. 

The restaurant attack is is the first aimed at the international community in more than a year, the New York Times reports. Both Western and Pakistani officials say it marks the escalating insurgency by al-Qaeda and the Taliban. In the last three months, more than a dozen suicide bombings have targeted the Pakistani government. (More Pakistan stories.)