Suicide Bombs Kill 16, Wound 150 in Pakistan

Two suicide car bombs killed 16 people and wounded about 150 others in separate attacks in northwestern Pakistan today, just days after the Taliban warned suicide strikes were coming if the military pressed forward with an offensive to rout the insurgents. The bombs were detonated outside a bank affiliated with the army in Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province, and at a police station in the province's Bannu district. A third bomb injured four in the restive region.
 

The strikes came two days after the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan threatened to step up suicide attacks in the region unless the army ends its offensive to roust the militants from the region. "We have enough suicide bombers and they are asking me to let them sacrifice their lives in the name of Islam," a Taliban trainer told the AP in an interview, "but we will send suicide bombers only if the government acts against us."     (More Pakistan stories.)