10 die in Peshawar blasts

Pakistani residents stand in front of a destroyed police building a day after a suicide car bomb attack in Lahore yesterday. The suicide attack flattened a police building in Pakistan's city of Lahore on Wednesday, killing 24 people on the spot. The government branded it a revenge for the govt offensive against the Taliban. Photo: AFP

Bombs tore through Pakistan's city of Peshawar killing ten people Thursday, after the Taliban claimed a deadly attack in Lahore and threatened further mayhem to avenge an offensive.
Three explosions wounded more than 100 people in Peshawar, as fears grew of mounting militant revenge for a punishing, month-long military assault against Islamist extremists across three northwest districts.
In the first attacks, devices planted in two motorcycles exploded in quick succession in crowded market places, sending smoke spewing into the air and gutting dozens of shops, said senior police investigator Shafqat Malik.
"Eight people were killed and a 100 injured -- 10 of them seriously. People are still bringing the wounded and we've declared an emergency," doctor Alamgir Shinwari told AFP from the main government hospital in Peshawar.
Running gun battles then broke out between police and insurgents in the northwest's biggest city, with two suspects shot dead and two arrested, provincial police chief Malik Mohammad Navid told reporters.
Flames ripped through the bazaar and charred cars lay flattened in the city, which lies on the fringes of lawless tribal areas where Washington says al-Qaeda and Taliban militants are holed up, plotting attacks on the West.
Shortly afterwards, a suicide bomber rammed a car packed with explosives into a police checkpoint on the outskirts of Peshawar, killing one policeman and injuring 15 people including civilians, officials said.
A spokesman for Pakistan's most wanted man, Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud, earlier warned of more "massive attacks" in retaliation for Islamabad's ties with Washington and its northwest offensive against militants.
The warning followed Wednesday's gun, grenade and bomb attack in Lahore, the third deadly assault to rock Pakistan's cultural capital in three months.
About 300 people were wounded when a van packed with nearly 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of explosives levelled a police building and damaged the provincial headquarters of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
"We claim responsibility for the Lahore suicide attack. It is revenge for the Swat military operation," Hakimullah Mehsud said from an unknown location.
Baitullah Mehsud commands Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) and is Pakistan's most wanted militant, with a five-million-dollar reward posted by the United States.
"If the government -- at the behest of America -- launches more operations against us, more government installations will be targeted," Hakimullah Mehsud, who is a commander and deputy to Baitullah Mehsud, told AFP.