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Bombs in Pakistan's Peshawar kill five

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-05-28 22:13

PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- Two bombs exploded on Thursday in the Pakistani city of Peshawar killing five people, a rescue official said, hours after the Taliban claimed an attack in Lahore the previous day and warned of more violence.

Police were firing at suspected militants in the narrow lanes of Peshawar's old city after the blasts, police said.

Pakistani soldiers carry the casket of soldier Abdul Ghaffar, who was killed in a military offensive against militants in the Swat Valley region, during a funeral ceremony on the outskirts of Karachi May 28, 2009. [Agencies]

Militant violence in nuclear-armed Pakistan has surged since mid-2007, with numerous attacks on the security forces, as well as on government and Western targets.

Related readings:  24 killed in Pakistan suicide blast  Car bombing kills 30, wounds 250 in Pakistan  Official: Bombing kills about 30 in Pakistan  Blast hits Pakistan's Lahore, casualties feared  Pakistan will defeat Taliban, vows Gilani

"They were two bomb blasts. There are casualties but I don't know the numbers. A building has caught fire," senior police officer Mohammad Anis told Reuters.

The bombs went off in a crowded market area of the city.

"I can see about 15 wounded people lying on the ground. People are running out of their shops," city resident Tahir Ali Shah told Reuters by telephone.

Zulfiqar Ahmed, an official with the Ehdi Rescue Centre, said his men had taken five bodies to a hospital and about 30 people had been wounded.

The blasts came a day after a suicide gun and bomb attack in the city of Lahore killed 24 people and wounded nearly 300. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for that attack, saying it was in revenge for an army offensive in the Swat region.

"We have achieved our target. We were looking for this target for a long time. It was a reaction to the Swat operation," said Hakimullah Mehsud, a militant commander loyal to Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud.

The army moved against the Taliban in their Swat valley stronghold late last month after the militants had seized a district only 100 km (60 miles) from the capital and a peace pact collapsed.

Taliban aggression and a perception the government was being distracted by political squabbling and failing to act to stop the militants had alarmed the United States and other Western allies.

The government also said the attack in a high-security area in Lahore where a police headquarters, emergency services building and a military intelligence office are located, was revenge for the Swat offensive.