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Bomb kills 8 police in Pakistan

EIGHT Pakistani police and soldiers were killed yesterday by a car bomb on the outskirts of the northwestern city of Peshawar, police said.

Pakistan has been hit by a wave of bombings in recent years, mostly carried out by Islamist militants linked to the Taliban or al-Qaida who are opposed to the government's support of the United States.

The car bomb went off as a police van approached to investigate following a tip-off that a body was in the parked car, said Peshawar Police Chief Safat Ghayur.

"As the police patrol van reached the spot the vehicle blew up. We lost all the men," Ghayur said.

Five of the dead were police and three were paramilitary soldiers, police said.

Also yesterday a roadside bomb blew up as a military convoy was passing in the Darra Adam Kheil region, south of Peshawar, killing two passers-by and wounding six soldiers, officials said.

Pakistani Taliban militants have been active in the area in recent months.

Most of the bomb attacks in Pakistan in the past few years have been aimed at security forces, particularly in the northwest, although militants have also attacked politicians and targets with Western connections.

There have been attacks in all major cities.

On Tuesday gunmen attacked the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore, killing seven Pakistanis and wounding six Sri Lankan players and two team officials.

Pakistan is also struggling with an economy kept afloat by the International Monetary Fund.



 

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