Suicide attack near Pakistan army headquarters

PAKISTAN: A suicide bomber blasted a military bus in Pakistan's northern city of Rawalpindi, killing six people, and a gunman fired on a political gathering in the south, stoking fears about security ahead of this month's crucial parliamentary elections.

A military statement said 38 people were wounded in the explosion Monday when a suicide bomber rammed his motorbike into the bus carrying military personnel to work at the Pakistan army's headquarters in Rawalpindi.

The dead included a colonel from the army's medical corps, according to a military official and a police officer who both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.

A military statement said four of the dead were members of the security services but gave no further details.

No group claimed responsibility for the bombing, the latest in a series of attacks in the city. On Dec. 27, opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and about 20 others died in a gun and bomb attack in Rawalpindi, located about 12 kilometers (7 miles) from the capital, Islamabad.

The mounting violence has fueled doubts about the ability of the government of President Pervez Musharraf to control rising militancy before the Feb. 18 elections, postponed for six weeks after Bhutto's assassination.

In the southern city of Karachi on Monday, a gunman on a motorcycle fired at a rally of about 100 supporters of Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party, wounding one person, said police officer Mohammed Pervez.

Islamabad, Tuesday, AP