6 Nov 2010

Mosque bombing leaves dozens dead

2:48 pm on 6 November 2010

A suicide bomber has attacked a mosque in northwest Pakistan as Friday prayers were ending, killing at least 66 people.

The attack occurred in Darra Adam Khel, a suburb of the provincial capital Peshawar. Some 80 people were wounded.

Witnesses say about 300 people were gathered just after prayers when the bomber walked into the mosque's main hall and detonated the explosives.

It is not immediately clear who carried out the attack, the latest in a series of mosque and shrine bombings.

Local residents say it may have been part of a turf war between rival militant groups.

It was the biggest attack in Pakistan since a September suicide bomb attack on a procession of Shi'ite Muslims in the southwestern city of Quetta, which killed 54 people.

In a second attack, hand grenades were thrown into a mosque on the outskirts of Peshawar during evening prayers, killing at least five people.