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Pakistani Police Struck By 2nd Blast At Scene

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The Associated Press

Published: January 5, 2009

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan - A suicide bomber attacked police in northwest Pakistan as they rushed to treat civilians wounded by an earlier explosion, killing seven people and injuring at least 25 others, a police official said.

The bomber attacked police Sunday while they were investigating a minor blast in the town of Dera Ismail Khan near the Afghan border, Sanaullah Khan said.

Five police officials and two civilians were killed by the second blast and 16 police were among the wounded, Khan said.

Amanullah Khan, a wounded police official, said he and his colleagues were attending to four civilians injured by the first explosion when the bomber attacked.

"When I stood up, there was blood everywhere," Khan said. "My colleagues were crying with pain."

Many al-Qaida and Taliban militants fled to northwest Pakistan from Afghanistan after the U.S.-led invasion in 2001. The militants have regrouped and have been launching attacks against Western forces across the border in Afghanistan and against security forces and civilians inside Pakistan.

During a raid elsewhere in northwest Pakistan on Sunday, the army discovered a van packed with 880 pounds of explosives.

The van was intended to be used in a suicide bombing, the army said.

Six suspected militants were arrested in the raid on a house in the Khyber tribal region, the army media center said. The army also found suicide jackets, rockets, assault rifles and improvised bombs in the house.

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