NYT : Suicide Bomber Kills 8 in Pakistan

Suicide Bomber Kills 8 in Pakistan

By SALMAN MASOOD | November 2, 2007

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Nov. 1 — A suicide bomber struck a Pakistan Air Force bus this morning in the central city of Sargodha, killing eight people and wounding 40 others, air force officials said.

The bomber rammed into the bus near Sargodha Air Base, which is about 140 miles south of Islamabad and is considered to be the country’s most important air base. It is the headquarters of the Southern Air Command, and two squadrons of F-16 fighter jets are based there.

“The suicide bomber was on a motorbike,” said Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad, a spokesman for the Pakistani military.

The attack was the first on air force personnel, suggesting an escalation in the challenges to Pakistan’s president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf. His authority has been undermined by growing unrest in tribal regions near the border with Afghanistan, where there has been a rising number of deadly attacks on military targets by militants sympathetic to the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

All earlier major attacks had been on personnel and installations of the Pakistani Army.

The wounded were taken to hospitals, air force officials said.

The attack came two days after a suicide bombing in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, the headquarters of the Pakistani military. In that attack, seven people were killed and at least 14 were wounded when a young bomber detonated explosives near a police checkpoint near General Musharraf’s military office.

“This is an extremely serious situation now,” said Talat Masood, a retired army general and military analyst. “The militants are trying to overpower, overwhelm the government. It is the military versus the militants and the people are mere spectators.”

Mr. Masood said the operations by the army against the militants in the northern parts of the country had been stepped up, and as a result the militants were choosing targets elsewhere. “So, the militants are reacting at soft targets and they feel they can create much greater impact by doing so,” he said.

The suicide attack today resembled an attack last month when powerful coordinated explosions set off by two suicide bombers in the heart of Rawalpindi killed at least 25 people, some from Pakistan’s intelligence agency who were traveling on a bus, and wounded at least 68, according to government and military officials.