PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Two suicide car bombs killed 16 people and
wounded about 150 others in separate attacks in northwestern Pakistan on
Saturday, just days after the Taliban warned suicide strikes were coming
if the military pressed forward with an offensive. A third bomb injured
four in the restive region.

Pakistan's mountainous, lawless northwest region along the Afghan border
— where the government holds little control — is a favored area for
insurgents to plan attacks on U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, as
well as on Pakistani security forces and government workers.

A suicide bomb was detonated outside a bank affiliated with the army in
Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province, police said. Ten
people were killed and 79 wounded, said Sahibzada Mohammed Anis, a
senior government official.

An Associated Press reporter at the scene saw vehicles overturned by the
blast, buildings gutted and glass scattered everywhere. Most of the
casualties were customers in the bank or people loitering outside.

"We saw body parts in the car and our investigation confirms it was a
suicide attack," said Malik Shafqat, a police official in Peshawar. He
said the attacker also threw a hand grenade before detonating the bomb
but it didn't explode.

A suicide blast also hit a police station in the province's Bannu
district earlier Saturday, killing at least six people and wounding
nearly 70 others, police said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for
that attack.

A third bomb exploded in the northern town of Gilgit, wounding four
people, Pakistan's SAMA news channel quoted local police Chief Ali Sher
as saying. He described it as a "low-intensity bomb" but provided no
further details.

The latest strikes came two days after the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan
said it was ready to stage more suicide attacks in the region after it
was ousted from the Swat Valley in July by an army offensive.

Qari Hussain Mehsud — known for training Taliban suicide bombers —
warned of more attacks in an AP interview at a secret location in North
Waziristan on Thursday, just hours before U.S. missiles hit the area and
killed 12 people.

"We have enough suicide bombers and they are asking me to let them
sacrifice their lives in the name of Islam, but we will send suicide
bombers only if the government acts against us," he said in the interview.

The U.S. has fired dozens of missiles from unmanned drones to take out
top Taliban and al-Qaeda leaders in the northwest over the past year.
Although Pakistan routinely protests the strikes, it is widely believed
to secretly cooperate with them.

A CIA drone attack felled former Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah
Mehsud on Aug. 5.

Qari Hussain Mehsud phoned the AP to claim responsibility for the police
station attack Saturday. "We have broken the silence as the government
did not understand the pause in attacks, and from now there will be an
increase in the number of suicide bombings," he said.

He urged civilians to stay away from police and security force
installations.

The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad condemned the bombings. "These attacks
highlight the vicious and inhuman nature of this enemy whose true target
is the democratically elected government of Pakistan and the security of
all Pakistanis," it said in a statement.

Taliban attacks surged in the region last week. Militants ambushed a
convoy of prominent anti-Taliban tribal elders in Bannu district on
Thursday, spraying their cars with gunfire and killing nine people.
Pakistani authorities have urged tribal elders to speak out against the
Taliban, and in turn the militants have killed scores of local leaders.

North West Frontier Province's information minister, Mian Iftikhar
Hussain, said the attacks would not deter the government from fighting
militants. He said security forces had arrested 40 would-be suicide
bombers in recent months in the northwest, thwarting efforts by the
Taliban to create chaos.

"It is not only our duty ... to fight this menace of terrorism, it is a
responsibility of the whole world," Hussain told reporters in Peshawar.
"We are on the front line today, that's why our blood is being shed."

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