ISLAMABAD: A suicide bomber blew himself up near a Pakistan Air Force base Friday, killing six people and dealing another blow to a beleaguered military pressing an offensive against the Taliban.
The blast ripped through a busy main road during the morning rush hour in the town of Kamra, about 80 kilometres (50 miles) west of the capital Islamabad near the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC), police said.
“It was a suicide attack that killed six people including four civilians and two Pakistan Air Force personnel,” said district police chief Fakhar Sultan.
The Air Force said 15 security personnel were admitted to hospital with injuries and confirmed that two of its personnel died when the bomber blew himself up at the checkpoint on the main road outside the base.
“We have found a mutilated face, as well as other body parts, including legs and arms of the bomber,” said Sultan.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but a series of attacks blamed on Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked extremists has left more than 190 dead this month in the frontline state in the US-led battle with global extremism.
The military has been a major target. On Thursday, gunmen killed a brigadier, who had been working in a UN peace mission in Sudan, with his driver in Islamabad.
On October 10 militants staged an audacious ambush claimed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban in Pakistan (TTP) movement on the army headquarters in Rawalpindi.
Pakistan has vowed to crush the network, unleashing a major ground and air offensive targeting TTP in their South Waziristan stronghold along the Afghan border, where Al-Qaeda is accused of plotting attacks on the West.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned the Kamra attack and vowed that the government would not waver in its resolve to “root out terrorism” with nearly 30,000 troops fighting against the TTP in South Waziristan.
Tensions have soared in Pakistan, with civilians increasingly nervous of extremist bombings and millions of students kept at home this week as Pakistan shut all schools and colleges after a suicide attack Tuesday at a university.
The Waziristan offensive presents Pakistan with its toughest fight to date against Islamist radicals accused of plotting attacks on the West and blamed for attacks that have killed 2,280 people in Pakistan in two years.
Officials say more than 150 people, at least 137 militants and 18 soldiers, have been killed since the operation against an estimated 10,000 fighters began Saturday and more than 120,000 civilians have fled the war zone.
Backed by helicopter gunships and warplanes, troops have been locked in heavy fighting that underscores the difficulty of dislodging diehard Taliban from bastions such as Kotkai, the hometown of TTP chief Hakimullah Mehsud.
Washington has encouraged the offensive but US lawmakers passed a giant Pentagon spending bill that sets tough new restrictions on military aid to Pakistan, where army commanders are already fuming over previous limits.
The bill says the Pentagon must certify that Islamabad is waging a “concerted” fight against Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and other fighters before it can receive the massive package of aid to battle extremists on its soil.
“That fight is important to our own national security and we have to ensure that our support for it is not being squandered or diverted,” said Senator Robert Menendez, a key author of the measure.
US lawmakers have increasingly called for closer tracking of US aid to Pakistan, amid growing concerns about US strategy in Afghanistan as Obama weighs sending more troops to fight the eight-year-old war.
But the vote could worsen a flare-up between Washington and Islamabad about strings attached to US dollars, military training and hardware, with Pakistani officials bitterly complaining of US interference in domestic affairs.
