Fourteen dead in northwest Pakistan suicide attack

Bomber targets scores of people taking tests for recruitment to the police force.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Pakistan bombing 88 (photo credit: AP)
Pakistan bombing 88
(photo credit: AP)
A suicide bomber attacked the police headquarters in a northwestern Pakistan city Sunday, leaving 14 people dead and 30 wounded, an official said. Earlier on Sunday, two suicide attackers and a roadside bomb simultaneously struck a military convoy in northwestern Pakistan on Sunday, killing 11 soldiers and three civilians, according to an army spokesman. The bomber in the latest attack targeted scores of people who were taking medical and written tests for recruitment to the police force in the city of Dera Ismail Khan, located near a tribal region where Islamic militants operate, police officer Gul Afzal Afridi said. "It was a suicide bombing and the attacker mingled among the scores of people gathered for the test and physical examination," Afridi said. More than 150 people were on the grounds of the police headquarters when the bomber struck, killing 14 people and wounding 30, some of them seriously. A man's head, severed from a mutilated body, was believed to be that of the suspected attacker, he said. He said most of the victims were applicants but several policemen were also among the victims. Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao also confirmed that 14 people were killed in the Dera Ismail Khan bombing. Dera Ismail Khan is a conservative city located near South Waziristan, a tribal region on the border with Afghanistan where security officials say al-Qaida and Taliban militants operate. Pakistani security forces have fought intense battles with militants in South Waziristan in the years since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.