Pakistan Mosque Attack Rises To 15

Pakistan Mosque Attack Rises To 15: The death toll from a suicide attack on a Pakistan mosque rose to 15 on Saturday after bodies were plucked from the rubble and people succumbed to their injuries, officials said.

The bomber rammed a vehicle rigged with explosives into a mosque next to a police headquarters in Lower Dir, a northwest district that Pakistan claims to have cleared of Taliban fighters after a major offensive this year.

“The death toll has reached 15 in the suicide blast. Two people died in hospital and two people were taken out from under the rubble,” Doctor Wakeel Mohammad Khan, head of main hospital in Lower Dir, told AFP.

Muhammad Idrees Khan, deputy inspector general of police in the district, confirmed the same death toll from the attack in Taimergara town.

quetta blastIslamist extremists are stepping up attacks in Pakistan to avenge military operations trying to crush Taliban sanctuaries in parts of the northwest, targeting security forces and increasingly civilians.

Militant attacks have killed more than 2,700 people since July 2007 and Washington is pressuring Pakistan to do more to crack down on Al-Qaeda and stop militants crossing the border to attack Western troops in Afghanistan.

Pakistan says at least 2,150 militants were killed during a major offensive against homegrown Taliban in Lower Dir, and neighbouring districts Swat and Buner earlier this year but attacks still plague the region.