Seven gunmen attacked a mosque close to army headquarters outside the
Pakistani capital, with reports of at least 36 people being killed at
the end of Friday prayers.

Published: 9:56AM GMT 04 Dec 2009

The attack is the latest in a series to rock Pakistan in recent months
as the government presses an offensive against al-Qaeda and the Taliban
in the country's northwest.

Waqas Ahmed, a police official, said gunfire was continuing in the city
of Rawalpindi. At least one explosion was also heard as soldiers
cordoned off the area and ambulances arrived at the scene.

Rawalpindi is just a few miles from the capital, Islamabad.

Ahmed, who was in the Rawalpindi police command centre, said only that
an undetermined number of people were being taken to a hospital.

Two of the recent terrorist attacks in Pakistan occurred in Rawalpindi.
A Nov. 2 suicide bomb killed 35 people and an Oct. 10 raid on the army
headquarters prompted a 22-hour standoff that left nine militants and 14
other people dead.

Violence has escalated since the army launched an offensive in
mid-October against Taliban militants in the northwestern tribal area of
South Waziristan near the Afghan border.

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