24 Oct 2009

Bombings in Pakistan claim 25 lives

8:36 am on 24 October 2009

A series of deadly bombings has killed at least 25 people in Pakistan.

A Taliban suicide bomber killed eight people outside a key airforce facility on Friday.

The bomber detonated explosives strapped to his body at a checkpoint outside the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex in Kamra, 75 kilometres northwest of the capital, Islamabad.

Earlier, at least 17 people - most of them children - were killed when their minibus hit an explosive device in the tribal area of Mohmand.

A car bomb exploded outside a restaurant in the northwestern city of Peshawar, wounding 15 people, two of them seriously.

The latest bombings were launched amid a major army offensive against Pakistani Taliban militant strongholds in South Waziristan, near the Afghan border.

Analysts have warned of the possibility of more attacks as the militants come under pressure in South Waziristan, with the Taliban hoping bloodshed and disruption will cause the government and ordinary people to lose their appetite for the offensive.