Eleven killed in Pakistan suicide attack

A suicide bomber blew up his explosives-filled car on Saturday at a police checkpoint in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, killing at least 11 people, officials said.

"At least 11 people have been killed and 26 others wounded," Peshawar district administration chief Sahibzada Anis told AFP, adding that the bomber detonated when police asked him to stop for a search.

Three women, three children and five men were killed in the blast, he added.

Peshawar police chief Liaqat Ali Khan told AFP that two policemen were among the dead, in the second suicide bombing in the city in as many days.

Malik Jehangir, in charge of the checkpoint, said policemen were checking vehicles when he saw a suspicious black car across the barrier and asked one of the policemen to go and check it.

"I saw that there was some argument between the driver and the policeman and suddenly a blast downed me with shrapnel piercing my shoulder," he said.

Another witness, Akbar Ali, said that he was riding a motorcycle and waiting in the queue at the checkpoint when he saw a scuffle between the bomber and the policeman. Seconds after a huge blast threw him to the ground.

Television footage showed a massive cloud of smoke above the Pushta Khara neighbourhood, on the outskirts of Peshawar, and the wreckage of several cars.

Peshawar, on the edge of Pakistan's tribal belt that has many al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters, has increasingly become the favoured target for attacks by militants, particularly since the army launched an offensive in October.

Early on Friday, a suicide attack there devastated the three-storey provincial headquarters of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), which is heavily involved in Pakistan's anti-terror fight.

At least 17 people were killed and 39 others injured in that bombing, officials said.

The most devastating bomb attack in Pakistan in two years killed at least 118 people in a crowded Peshawar market on October 28 as militants put ordinary civilians in the crosshairs of their bloody campaign.

The government blames increasing attacks on Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which is the target of the ongoing offensive and which wants to avenge the killing of their leader Baitullah Mehsud by a US missile in August.

The Friday and Saturday attacks were claimed by TTP, who warned of more strikes to come.

"We claim responsibility for the ISI, Bannu and Peshawar checkpost suicide attacks. We will launch so many attacks that the president, prime minister and governor would not be able to sit in their palaces," TTP spokesman Azam Tariq told AFP.

Qari Hussain, a TTP leader, said on Saturday the attacks were in reaction against the "military operation in South Waziristan and government policies.

"We will launch more suicide attacks," he told AFP.

Pakistan launched punishing air and ground offensive in South Waziristan tribal district on October 17, with 30,000 troops backed by fighter jets and helicopter gunships.

The military said in a statement on Saturday that during the past 24 hours the army killed seven Taliban militants as troops consolidated positions and conducted search operations in former militant strongholds.

And in northwestern Swat valley, troops killed 13 insurgents in two separate gunfights Saturday, officials said.

An anti-Taliban offensive in and around northwest Swat valley earlier this year forced nearly two million people from their homes, creating a massive humanitarian crisis in the impoverished country.