Suicide Bombers (page 3)

Suicide bomber detonates car carrying explosives near mission's outer wall

The Taliban later claimed responsibility for the attack. The Afghan foreign ministry hinted at Pakistan's involvement as well, but Islamabad denied the charge. The blast appeared similar in pattern to the one in July 2008, which American intelligence officials said Pakistan's spy agency -- the ISI -- had helped plan. India had also blamed the ISI for the 2008 attack, but refrained from pointing fingers on Thursday.

The latest bombing took place a day after India pledged to continue to "invest and endure" in Afghanistan. The casualty included 15 civilians and two Afghan policemen. Most of the wounded were also civilians, said the Afghan interior ministry, which is located across the road from the blast site. The bombing occurred near the outer perimeter of the heavily-fortified embassy at about 8.30 am local time (9.30 am IST). The suicide bomber drove up in a car but was stopped by two Afghan policemen. He appeared to be moving away, eyewitnesses said, but then the car blew up -- damaging a wall and destroying a watch tower and leaving a trail of death and destruction.

Jayant Prasad, India's ambassador in Kabul, said the blast caused "extensive damage to the chancery", blowing off some of its doors and windows. The explosion also damaged a line of shops between the embassy and the interior ministry, shattering glass and rattling buildings more than a mile away. A huge brown plume of smoke was visible as ambulances raced to the scene and carried away the wounded.

A 21-year-old Afghan man, who gave his name as Najibullah, said he had just opened his shop when the explosion took place, knocking him unconscious. When he awoke, he said, he couldn't see anything because of dust and debris. "Dust was everywhere. People were shouting," Najibullah said. "You couldn't see their faces because there was so much dust." Foreign secretary Nirupama Rao said in New Delhi the attack was directed against India. "The suicide bomber came up to the outside perimeter wall of the embassy in a car loaded with explosives, obviously with the aim of targeting the embassy," she said.

She said she had spoken to ambassador Prasad, who had assured her the embassy officers, staff and personnel were safe. "Three ITBP personnel who were guarding the perimeter wall of the embassy have been slightly injured because of shrapnel from the blast. But there has been no loss of life," she added. Two of the injured personnel were identified as hawaldar Ravinder Singh and constable Gunwant. Rao, who is expected to visit Kabul on Friday, did not say who she believed was responsible for the attack. But an Afghan foreign ministry statement said Thursday's attack "was planned and implemented from outside of Afghan borders" by the same groups responsible for the July 2008 bombing.

The ministry statement made no mention of Pakistan.However, the Afghan government had blamed the ISI for the 2008 embassy bombing as well as for involvement in a string of attacks in the country. US officials suspected the 2008 embassy bombing and other high profile attacks were carried out by followers of Jalaluddin Haqqani, a longtime Afghan militant leader whose forces are battling US forces in eastern Afghanistan from sanctuaries in the border area of Pakistan.

Source: Mail Today PAK STAMP ON KABUL STRIKE: 17 killed as Taliban target Indian embassy in Kabul

The explosion took place just after midday about 1.5 km from the US embassy on the busy airport road, destroying at least one vehicle of the NATO- led International Security Assistance Force ( ISAF).

" Six Italian soldiers were killed and another three wounded," the Italian defence ministry announced.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack -- one of the worst on the more than one lakh NATO and US- led troops serving in Afghanistan.

Armoured vehicles showing the Italian flag and marked with the ISAF logo were damaged, scattering twisted metal across the blood- stained road, where stunned civilians staggered through the wreckage hunting for relatives.

" I heard a huge blast and then saw thick black smoke," said shopkeeper Fawad. " I couldn't see anything. When the smoke lifted slightly, I saw a man on the tarmac without a head." Italian defence minister Ignazio La Russa said, 10 Italian paratroopers were travelling in two armoured vehicles when the suicide bomber struck, apparently in a white Toyota vehicle. " Sadly, I must confirm the loss of six lives from the parachute regiment," he said.

Source: Mail TodayTaliban suicide blast in Kabul leaves 16 dead

Here is a timeline of the deadliest bomb attacks since 2007:

Feb. 3, 2007 - A truck bomb kills 135 people and wounds 305 at a market in the Sadriya quarter of central Baghdad.

March 6 - Two suicide bombers strike in Hilla, south of Baghdad, killing 105 pilgrims. Insurgents launch a total of 12 attacks against Shi'ite pilgrims. In all, 137 pilgrims are killed and 310 are wounded.

March 27 - A truck bomb explodes in Tal Afar, close to the Syrian border and Mosul, killing 152 people.

April 18 - Multiple car bombings kill 191 people around Baghdad. One car bomb near a market in the central Sadriya neighbourhood kills 140 people and wounds 150.

April 28 - A suicide car bomber kills 60 people and wounds 170 at a checkpoint in Kerbala.

May 13 - A suicide truck bombing in northern town of Makhmour kills 50, with 70 people wounded.

June 19- A car bomb near the Khilani Shi'ite mosque in central Baghdad kills 87 people.

July 7 - A truck packed with explosives covered with hay blows up in a crowded market in the northern town of Tuz Khurmato, killing 150 people and wounding 250.

July 16 - Eighty-five people are killed by a suicide truck bomb in the city of Kirkuk. At least 180 are wounded.

Aug. 14 - At least three suicide bombers driving fuel tankers kill and wound at least 796 people in Yazidi residential compounds in the villages of Kahtaniya and al-Jazeera in northern Iraq near the Syrian border. Yazidis are members of a pre-Islamic Kurdish sect who live in northern Iraq and Syria.

Feb. 1, 2008 - Female bombers kill 99 people in attacks blamed on al Qaeda at two popular Baghdad pet markets, the city's worst attacks in six months.

Feb. 24 - A suicide bomber targeting pilgrims heading to one of Shi'ite Islam's holiest rites in southern Kerbala kills 63 people and wounds scores in Iskandariya.

March 6 - Two bombs explode in Baghdad's mainly Shi'ite Karrada district, killing 68 people. Another 120 were wounded.

April 15 - A car bomb kills 40 people and wounds 80 outside a provincial government headquarters in Baquba, local capital of Diyala province. Another car bomb, believed to be driven by a suicide attacker, explodes outside a popular restaurant in Ramadi, capital of Anbar province, killing 13.

June 17 - A truck bomb blasts the al-Hurriya neighbourhood of northwestern Baghdad, killing 63 people and wounding 75. The U.S. military said the attack was carried out by a "special groups cell".

Dec. 11 - A suicide bomber detonates explosives inside a Kurdish restaurant north of Kirkuk. At least 50 people are killed and 109 wounded in the blast.

June 20, 2009 - A suicide bomber detonates a truck filled with explosives as crowds of worshippers leave the Shi'ite al-Rasul mosque in Taza, near Kirkuk. At least 73 people were killed and more than 250 wounded.

June 24 - A bomb kills 72 people at a busy market in eastern Baghdad's Sadr City. At least 127 people are wounded.

Aug. 19 - At least six blasts strike near government ministries and other targets in Baghdad killing 95 people and wounding 536.

British soldiers survey the site of a suicide bomb blast on August 18, 2009 in Kabul, Afghanistan. Eight people were killed and over 50 wounded after a suicide car bomber attacked a convoy of foreign troops. The attack took place on a major artery leading out of Kabul, just two days ahead of the Presidential elections.

A suicide bomber outside Kabul has killed at least eight people, just two days before Afghanistan's presidential election.

The Taliban, which is warning voters to stay away from the polls, is claiming responsibility.

The suicide bomber targeted a NATO convoy near a British military base. Two NATO troops are reported among the dead along with two Afghans who were working for the United Nations.

The attack came hours after mortar rounds hit near the presidential palace in Kabul.

NATO is still saying it will hold off on offensive military operations Thursday, unless necessary to protect the population.

In eastern Afghanistan, two American soldiers were killed and three wounded when their vehicle struck a bomb. A total of 26 GIs have been killed in Afghanistan so far this month.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says the latest rise in insurgent violence in Afghanistan reflects a deliberate campaign to intimidate voters ahead of Thursday's presidential election.

Clinton told reporters at the State Department on Tuesday that the Taliban hope their attacks will create an atmosphere of fear that will keep people away from the ballot boxes.

She also said the Obama administration wants to stress to Afghans that it is their right to select their own leaders and that this voting opportunity is made possible by the security efforts of U.S. troops and those of its allies.

Destroyed cars are seen at a police station in Nazran, Ingushetia, Russia, Monday, Aug. 17, 2009. A suicide bomber exploded a truck at a police station in Russia's restive North Caucasus Monday, killing at least 20 people and wounding 60 others, officials said.

A suicide bomber rammed a truck into a police station in the Russian region of Ingushetia on Monday, killing at least 20 police in the worst attack to ravage the poor North Caucasus republic in years.

The blast, which wounded more than 130 others, undermined Kremlin claims that its efforts to bring calm and prosperity to the impoverished patchwork of ethnic groups, clans and religions were succeeding. It also stoked fears that Ingushetia has replaced Chechnya as the next battleground in the southern Russian region. In Dagestan, another Caucasus republic where violence is on the rise, a roadside bomb in the capital Makhachkala killed one policeman and wounded three late Monday, said Col. Shamil Guseinov, a city police commander.

Emergency workers look through debris at a destroyed police station in Nazran, Ingushetia, Russia,

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack in Nazran, Ingushetia's main city, which left the two-story building smoldering and a crater in the compound's courtyard, where the attacker detonated the bomb.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev fired Ingushetia's top police official and, in unusually harsh comments, said police forces were as much to blame as the attackers themselves.

"This terrorist attack could have been prevented," he said.

Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev attended an emergency meeting early Tuesday of Ingushetia's anti-terrorist committee, the Itar-Tass news agency reported. He said authorities would "take additional measures to ensure stability and security in the republic" and "deliver a blow" to those responsible for the attack.

Here is some of the news coverage of the event from You Tube

Ingushetia — more than any other North Caucasus region — has been reeling from militant violence in recent months, including a suicide bombing that badly wounded the Kremlin-appointed leader, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov.

Yevkurov blamed militants who have battled security forces in the forests along the mountainous border with Chechnya.

"It was an attempt to destabilize the situation and sow panic," he said in a statement issued by his spokesman.

A view from a neighbouring building to a destroyed police station in Nazran, Ingushetia, Russia

Investigators said the attacker crashed his truck through the gates of city police headquarters in Nazran as officers were lining up for their morning inspection. Police fired shots at the truck, but failed to stop it.

Source: Associated Press Suicide bomb kills 20, injures over 130 in Russia

Security forces inspected the scene of the bombing in Ramadi.

The attack in Baghdad occurred shortly after sundown in Sadr City, a congested and predominantly Shiite district. An improvised explosive device exploded at the entrance of a funeral tent that had been set up on the street, witnesses at the scene said. Five people were killed and 26 wounded, according to the main hospital in Sadr City.

Men sobbed amid the remains of the burned tent and shredded funeral chairs. "Where is the government? Where are the security forces?" shouted Abbas Mohammed, 48, whose clothes were soaked in blood. "If they cannot control the situation, then let our sons take over."

Later on Wednesday, another homemade bomb planted on the side of Saadoun Street in central Baghdad was detonated, wounding 10 people.

The attack in Sadr City came hours after the authorities had announced a curfew on all motorcycles in the city, including the popular auto-rickshaws, beginning Thursday and lasting for four days, in preparation for an important Shiite religious holiday this weekend. Last month, a bomb placed in an auto-rickshaw at a busy market in Sadr City killed 76 people and wounded 156.

On Saturday, Iraq's majority Shiite population will commemorate the death of Imam Musa al-Kadhim, a revered religious figure buried in Kadhimiya in northern Baghdad. Pilgrims have already started trekking to his shrine from all over the country. The event usually attracts hundreds of thousands of people despite the potential danger.

Shiite religious events and places of worship have been the scenes of some of the bloodiest attacks in Iraq since the American military invaded in 2003. The most recent, in April, took place just outside the gate of the Kadhimiya shrine; two suicide bombers killed 60 people and wounded 125.

Duraid Adnan contributed reporting from Baghdad, and an employee of The New York Times from Ramadi, Iraq.

Source: www.nytimes.com Bombings in Iraq Kill 11 People

Here is a timeline of the deadliest bomb attacks since 2007:

February 3, 2007 - A truck bomb kills 135 people and wounds 305 at a market in the Sadriya quarter of central Baghdad.

March 6 - Two suicide bombers strike in Hilla, south of Baghdad, killing 105 pilgrims. Insurgents launch a total of 12 attacks against Shi'ite pilgrims. In all, 137 pilgrims are killed and 310 are wounded.

March 27 - A truck bomb explodes in Tal Afar, close to the Syrian border and Mosul, killing 152 people.

April 18 - Multiple car bombings kill 191 people around Baghdad. One car bomb near a market in the central Sadriya neighborhood kills 140 people and wounds 150.

April 28 - A suicide car bomber kills 60 people and wounds 170 at a checkpoint in Kerbala.

May 13 - Suicide truck bombing in northern town of Makhmour kills 50, with 70 people wounded.

June 19 - A car bomb near the Khilani Shi'ite mosque in central Baghdad kills 87 people.

July 7 - A truck packed with explosives covered with hay blows up in a crowded market in the northern town of Tuz Khurmato, killing 150 people and wounding 250.

July 16 - Eighty-five people are killed by a suicide truck bomb in the city of Kirkuk. At least 180 are wounded.

August 14 - At least three suicide bombers driving fuel tankers kill and wound at least 796 people in Yazidi residential compounds in the villages of Kahtaniya and al-Jazeera in northern Iraq near the Syrian border. Yazidis are members of a pre-Islamic Kurdish sect who live in northern Iraq and Syria.

February 1, 2008 - Female bombers kill 99 people in attacks blamed on al Qaeda at two popular Baghdad pet markets, the city's worst attacks in six months.

February 24 - A suicide bomber targeting pilgrims heading to one of Shi'ite Islam's holiest rites in southern Kerbala kills 63 people and wounds scores in Iskandariya.

March 6 - Two bombs explode in Baghdad's mainly Shi'ite Karrada district, killing 68 people. Another 120 were wounded.

April 15 - A car bomb kills 40 people and wounds 80 outside a provincial government headquarters in Baquba, local capital of Diyala province. Another car bomb, believed to be driven by a suicide attacker, explodes outside a popular restaurant in Ramadi, capital of Anbar province, killing 13.

June 17 - A truck bomb blasts the al-Hurriya neighborhood of northwestern Baghdad, killing 63 people and wounding 75. The U.S. military said the attack was carried out by a "special groups cell."

December 11 - A suicide bomber detonates explosives inside a Kurdish restaurant north of Kirkuk. At least 50 people are killed and 109 wounded in the blast.

June 20, 2009 - A suicide bomber detonates a truck filled with explosives as crowds of worshippers leave the Shi'ite al-Rasul mosque in Taza, near Kirkuk. At least 73 people were killed and more than 250 wounded.

June 24, 2009 - A bomb kills 72 people at a busy market in eastern Baghdad's Sadr City. At least 127 people are wounded.

(Writing by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit;)

They fired guns as they stormed past guards and set off a huge blast that killed at least five persons and wounded 65 more, Pakistani officials said.

A victim (left) being carried out of the blast site while an injured women tries to cover her wound in Peshawar

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in the largest city in Pakistan's restive north- west. But it fit the pattern of recent Taliban attacks the militants said were in retaliation for a military campaign against them in the Swat Valley region.

Local television networks showed part of the Pearl Continental Hotel had been demolished in the blast -- reduced to concrete rubble and twisted steel. The scene was pandemonium, with armed police rushing around and men standing by looking stunned. One man held a bloodied rag to his head. A large crater was blasted into the ground.

A reporter saw six foreigners being helped out of the hotel. They all had wounds and at least two of them had bandages around their heads. One of them said: " We work for UNHCR." He added that that officials from World Food Program were also staying at the hotel.

Police official Liaqat Ali said he learned from witnesses that three men riding in a truck approached the main gate of the hotel and opened fire at security guards before driving inside.

" They drove the vehicle inside the hotel gates and blew it up on reaching close to the hotel building," Ali said.

Sahibzada Anis, a top government official in Peshawar, said at least five persons were killed.

Source: Mail Today Suicide Attack In Peshawar Hotel Kills Five

The data collected by The News reveals that around 108 people were killed and 584 injured during suicide attacks across Punjab in 2009, while 274 people were killed and 722 injured in 2008. No less than 107 people were killed and 279 injured in suicide attacks in 2007.

On February 5, 2009, 32 people were killed and 48 others injured when a suspected suicide bomber blew himself amidst a crowd of worshippers outside a mosque in Dera Ghazi Khan. Police said the blast targeted dozens of people converging on the Al Hussainia Mosque after dark, shortly before a religious gathering. Police blamed sectarian extremists for the incident. The explosion occurred just 50 feet short of the mosque. On March 16, 2009, around 15 people were killed and 25 injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up near a busy bus stand at Pirwadhai in Rawalpindi. It was believed that the original target of the bomber could have been the participants of the `long march'. The suicide bomber riding a on a motorbike blew himself up outside a restaurant, which was set up close to a cab stand.

On March 23, 2009, a suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance of the headquarters of the Special Branch (SB), an intelligence agency of the Federal Capital Police, in Sitara Market, killing himself and a policeman.

Two police officials were wounded in the attack. Over 120 personnel of the Special Branch lived on the premises of the SB headquarters and most of them were present in their barracks at that time. Police Constable Faisal Khan, deployed at the main gate of the headquarters, reportedly got hold of the suicide bomber when he was advancing towards the barracks. The bomber detonated the bomb, killing both of them.

On April 04, 2009, eight Frontier Constabulary (FC) personnel were killed, and seven others injured, when a suicide bomber blew himself up at an FC check post on the Margalla Road in Islamabad. The blast, which took place at 7:35pm, was followed by an exchange of fire between FC personnel and unidentified accomplices of the suicide attacker. The crossfire continued for around 20 minutes. On April 5, 2009, a suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance of an imambargah in Chakwal, killing 24 people, including three children, and injuring 140 others, at a religious gathering.

The target was the gathering of around 800 people in an imambargah in Muhallah Sarpak. The majlis ended at 12:15pm and people were preparing to leave the imambargah when a 15-year old boy, who looked like an Afghan, stormed into the crowd and blew himself up. On May 27, 2009, no less than 27 people, including ISI and police officials wee killed while over 362 injured when an explosive laden vehicle was detonated amidst ISI and Rescue 15 buildings at Fatima Jinnah Road.

As per data of suicide attacks carried out during 2008, on January 10, at least 24 people, including 17 policemen, were killed and 80 others injured in a suicide bomb blast outside the Lahore High Court, minutes before the arrival of an anti-government lawyers' procession. The blast ripped through GPO Chowk in front of the Lahore High Court as the suicide bomber walked up to around 60 riot police - who had gathered there ahead of a demonstration against President General Pervez Musharraf's government - and blew himself up. Around 200 lawyers were inside the High Court at the time of the blast, and others were marching from a nearby district court.

On February 4, at least ten people were killed and around 10 others wounded when a suicide bomber crashed his bike into an armed forces bus carrying students and officials of Army Medical College, near the General Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi. An eyewitness said the suicide bomber hit the 30-seater bus in front of National Logistic Cell offices close to the GHQ, blowing away the roof, windows and doors of the bus. Several other vehicles were also damaged. A van carrying schoolchildren was also partially damaged, but the children remained unhurt.

On February 25, a suicide bomber killed eight people, including the Pakistan Army's surgeon general, in Rawalpindi - the highest-ranking military official killed since the country joined the US-led war on terror. Lieutenant General Mushtaq Baig, surgeon general and director general of army's medical services, died after a teenage suicide bomber blew himself up next to a military convoy on a busy road in Rawalpindi. Five civilians were also killed, while 25 others were injured, an army statement said.

On March 4, eight people were killed and 24 others injured when two suicide bombers blew themselves up in the parking area of the Pakistan Navy War College in Lahore. The incident occurred at around 1:10pm when classes in the Pakistan Navy War College were in progress. Five Navy officials and two suicide bombers died on the spot while one Navy official succumbed to injuries at a hospital.

On March 11, at least 30 people were killed and more than 200 injured in suicide blasts at the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) headquarters and an advertising agency office in Lahore. The first attack was carried out at the FIA regional headquarters on Temple Road, severely damaging the eight-storey establishment and adjacent buildings. The building also housed the offices of a special US-trained unit created to counter terrorism. The second attack was carried out on Bungalow No 83/F in Model Town - the office of an advertising agency. Two children and a gardener died in the bombing and about 12 people were injured.

On June 2, a suspected suicide bomber blew up his car outside the Danish embassy in Islamabad, killing at least eight persons and injuring 30 others. The Danish foreign minister said a Pakistani cleaner employed at the embassy and a Danish citizen of Pakistani origin had died and three other local employees were hurt, but the embassy's four Danish staffers were unharmed.

On July 6, 20 people, including 15 policemen, were killed and more than 40 people injured in a suicide attack near Melody Market area of Islamabad. The suicide bomber targeted policemen deployed at a rally observing the first anniversary of an army raid on the Lal Masjid in Islamabad.

On August 13, a suicide blast in Lahore killed at least nine persons and injured more than 35, targeting policemen standing guard on the eve of the Independence Day. The attack took place at the busy Dubai Chowk in the Allama Iqbal Town area at around 11:34pm, as citizens poured into streets before midnight to celebrate the 61st anniversary of Pakistan's independence, which falls on August 14. Among the dead were two policemen and a woman.

On August 21, two suicide bombers blew themselves up at the gates of the Pakistan Ordnance Factories (POF) in the high security cantonment town of Wah, around 30 kilometres from Islamabad, killing at least 70 persons in what was described as the deadliest attack on a military installation in the country's history. The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the attack. The POF at Wah is a cluster of around 20 industrial units producing artillery, tank and anti-aircraft ammunition for the Pakistani armed forces. It employs around 25,000 to 30,000 workers.

On September 20, a suicide bomber detonated a truck packed with explosives at the Marriott Hotel in capital Islamabad, killing at least 60 people. At least 200 people, including a Pakistan People's Party legislator, were injured in the explosion, which ruptured a gas pipeline and triggered a huge blaze. A US national was killed and several foreigners were injured. A group calling itself Fedayeen-i-Islam claimed responsibility for the suicide attack.

On October 6, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd of people at the house of Rashid Akbar Niwani, a Shia Member of National Assembly from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), in Bhakkar, 260 kilometres southwest of Islamabad, killing 25 people and wounding 60 others, including Niwani.

On October 9, a suspected suicide car bombing destroyed part of an Anti-Terror Squad building and wounded at least six policemen in the heavily guarded Police Lines area in Islamabad.

In 2007, no less than six incidents of suicide attacks were reported in Punjab. On September 4, at least 30 people were killed and 70 others wounded in two suicide attacks at Qasim Market and RA Bazaar in the garrison city of Rawalpindi. The first suicide bomber targeted a bus that was carrying around 35 employees of a defence agency to their office near the Qasim Market, killing at least 20 people. Soon after, another blast occurred near the RA Bazaar police station, killing 10 more people.

On October 30, a suicide bomber killed eight people, including three police personnel, and injured at least 18 others, including 14 police personnel, when he blew himself up at a police picket near district courts in the cantonment area of Rawalpindi. President Pervez Musharraf had reportedly been meeting governors and chief ministers at Camp Office less than a kilometre away from the site. The fortified army posts at the checkpoint and the nearby gate to the residence of Joint Chief of Army Staff Chairman General Tariq Majid were reportedly scarred with shrapnel and spattered with blood.

On November 1, a suicide bomber rammed his motorcycle into a Pakistan Air Force (PAF) bus, killing seven officers of the PAF and three civilians on the Faisalabad Road in Sargodha. At least 28 people were wounded in the attack. The bus was reportedly carrying PAF staff from the Mushaf Mir Airbase to Kirana Ammunition Depot when the bomber targeted the bus at approximately 6.45am.

On November 24, two suicide bombers simultaneously targeted military personnel and installations at two different places in Rawalpindi, claiming over 32 lives and wounding 55 others. In the first attack that occurred at 7:55am, the suicide bomber while trying to enter the Hamza Camp, the main office of the ISI, hit the staff bus of the agency. The blast, which occurred 200 metres from Faizabad at the Murree Road, killed over 30 personnel in the bus and guards standing at the main gate. At the same time near the GHQ, another suicide bomber blew up his car after hitting an Army check-post when he was intercepted while trying to infiltrate into the high security zone. Two Army personnel were killed while one was injured in the second attack.

On December 10, eight people, including five schoolchildren, were injured when a suicide bomber exploded his car targeting a Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) bus carrying air force employees' children at a military base at Kamra around 50 kilometres northwest of Islamabad. A suicide bomber exploded his car on the outskirts of the PAC factories on the Qutba-Attock Road on Monday at 7.30am near a PAC school bus carrying children to schools in Attock City.

On December 27, Benazir Bhutto, the chairperson of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), was assassinated in a gun and suicide attack as she drove away from a campaign rally just minutes after addressing thousands of supporters at Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpindi. At least 30 more people were killed and over 100 others wounded in the attack.

A crowd of women and children was struck Thursday by a bomber in Baghdad, one of three attacks in Iraq that killed 80.

The second suicide bombing struck a restaurant filled with Iranian tourists in a restive city north of the capital.

The number of people killed in the attacks is the largest single-day total since February 2008.

The overall level of violence in Iraq is at its lowest since the American invasion in 2003, and Iraqis have been venturing out to parks, restaurants and nightclubs. But a string of recent attacks, highly organized and carried out under tight security, has raised worries that Baathist and jihadi militants are regrouping into a smaller but still lethal insurgency seeking to reassert itself as the American troop presence on the ground is reduced before a full withdrawal in 2011.

"The government was treating the situation like they'd won a victory," said Sheik Jalal al-Din Saghir, a member of Parliament from the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, a Shiite political party. "They relaxed. We can't ignore that there were security successes, but that doesn't mean the story is finished."

The government may have scored at least one important security victory on Thursday, announcing the capture of a major leader of the Sunni insurgency, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi. But reports of his arrest, and even his supposed death, have been announced before, and some American military officials even question whether such a man exists.

Iraqi leaders say Mr. Baghdadi is the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq, an umbrella group of Sunni militant forces that includes Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the homegrown group that American intelligence officials say is led by foreigners.

The Iraqi military provided no further details about the arrest, and the United States military has not confirmed it.

On Thursday, Hussein al-Shami, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, defended the government's security gains.

"The security situation is still good, but there are some sleeper cells that are targeting the softer areas," he said. "They just want to send a message to the government and the world that they are still here."

The woman who blew herself up in Baghdad's central Karada district on Thursday resembled most of the other women crowded outside a food distribution site that was catering mainly to those displaced by the war.

She wore a black abaya and, like many of the other women, was walking with a child, in her case a young girl, according to Iraqi Army and police officials who interviewed survivors at the scene.

The woman stood out, the witnesses said, only because she began nudging her way through the crowd, which had been waiting patiently for the bags of flour, bottles of cooking oil and other staples that the police were handing out. The witnesses said she tugged the child, who looked about 5 years old, along with her.

Once she reached the center of the crowd, she set off the blast, with explosives that the police believe she hid under her flowing clothes.

Afterward, a tattered black abaya stuck to a wall on the first-floor balcony of an adjacent apartment building, singed by the explosion. The sidewalk was littered with bags of macaroni and loose leaf tea that had been part of the giveaway. Flies swarmed on bits of human flesh.

One woman sat on the ground, wailing as she beat the sidewalk with the palms of her hands. She said she had lost her husband, her son, her sister and six grandchildren.

Source: www.nytimes.com 80 Are Killed in 3 Suicide Bombings in Iraq