1 The Long War Journal: Suicide bomber kills four in Peshawar

Written by Bill Roggio on November 16, 2009 8:08 AM to 1 The Long War Journal

Available online at: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/11/suicide_bomber_kills_19.php

A suicide bomber killed four Pakistanis while targeting a police station in the latest strike in Peshawar. The attack took place in a crowded area of Badhaber, a suburb of Peshawar. The blast leveled a mosque, damaged a boys' school, and collapsed a wall of the police station.

One child was among those killed, while 26 Pakistanis, including women and children, were wounded.

The Taliban have made Peshawar a focal point of their terror offensive, which began on Oct. 5. Peshawar has been hit with five suicide attacks in the past week. Eight of the 22 major attacks in Pakistan have taken place in or near the capital of the Northwest Frontier Province.

Suicide attacks have targeted the headquarters of the Inter-Services Intelligence Agency, police stations and checkpoints, markets, and anti-Taliban leaders in Peshawar.

In the neighboring district of Nowshera, the Taliban assassinated another political leader. Gunmen shot Malik Yaqoob, a political leader in the Awami National Party, the ruling, secular Pashtun party in the Northwest Frontier Province which opposes the Taliban.

Yaqoob is the third anti-Taliban political leader to be killed in the northwest since Nov. 8. A few days ago, the Taliban assassinated anti-extremist leaders in Peshawar and Bajaur, and just yesterday failed in an assassination attempt on another leader in Peshawar.