30 Killed in Lahore Bomb Blast

(NEWSER) - One of Pakistan’s most prominent anti-Taliban clerics was killed today in a suicide bomb attack, the Times of London reports. Sarfraz Ahmed Naeemi, who supported the Pakistan army’s campaign in the Swat Valley, died on the way to the hospital after an explosion at his Islamic college in Lahore. “There was blood and several people were crying in pain,” Naeemi’s son said. More»

Suicide attack comes as chair of Joint Chiefs meets Musharraf

(NEWSER) - A suicide attack at one of Pakistan's premier military academies has left at least seven people dead and 19 injured. The blast in the parking lot of Lahore's Naval War College set off explosions in the gasoline tanks of neighboring cars and sparked a fire, Reuters reports. Today's bombing, the fourth in five days, poses a serious challenge to the incoming government, reports AFP. More»

Taliban deny responsibility for most deadly attack since Osama bin Laden killing

(AP) - Twin explosions ripped through a market district in Peshawar, northwest Pakistan, earlier today, killing at least 34 people and injuring more than 100. The initial bomb went off in a hotel bathroom from a timed device, say police, but the second was detonated by a suicide bomber on a motorcycle. A hotel and six shops were badly damaged. "The first blast was quite small but as people gathered close to the site of the explosion, the second one, which was a real big one, went off," a senior police official told the AFP . More»

Wave of post-bin Laden violence continues

(AP) - Police say a suicide bomber has attacked a bakery in northwest Pakistan, killing 18 people and wounding 40 others. A police official says the attack occurred late today in a neighborhood where army personnel live in the town of Nowshera. It was the second bomb blast of the day: An earlier attack killed six people at a bus stop in the Matani area, also in the northwest. The bombings were the latest in a wave of bloodshed to hit Pakistan since the May 2 US raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad. Click for more on yesterday's strike on "the brain" of al-Qaeda. More»

Young boys describe how they were led into terror

(NEWSER) - Last weekend, the Afghan intelligence service paraded five young boys—some not yet adolescents—in front of reporters and photographers to send a clear message: "The Taliban are recruiting children in their ranks and using them to carry out suicide attacks in Afghanistan," a spokesman said. One 9-year-old says his mullah promised that “when we carried out our suicide attacks, all the people around us would die, but we would stay alive.” He traveled from Pakistan into Afghanistan with three other boys, but instead of being met at the border by members of the Taliban, they were picked up by Afghan intelligence officials who were tipped off to the plan, the AP reports. More»