On Tuesday evening, suicide attackers from a militant organization rammed two car bombs into an army base in northwestern Pakistan, causing enormous blasts and resulting in the deaths of nine civilians, police informed AFP.
“The current death toll has reached nine, which includes three children and two women. At least 20 additional people were injured in the two explosions,” said a senior police official, on condition of anonymity.
The attack took place at Bannu, according to the officer, a district in Pakistan’s turbulent Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province which lies adjacent to the country’s formerly self-governed tribal areas.
“The blasts created two four-foot craters, and due to their intensity, at least eight houses in the locality have been damaged,” the police official said.
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Sources indicate that the terrorist organization Jaish ul Fursan, which has recently allied with Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), is thought to be behind the attack.
Alleged images of the assault on social media displayed dense smoke billowing up into the atmosphere following the explosions, accompanied by gunfire audible in the background.
Sources reported that two concurrent suicide car bombs (SVBIEDs) were deployed as a distraction, in conjunction with a coordinated attack by five to six terrorists.
On February 28, a leading pro-Taliban cleric, Hamidul Haq Haqqani, along with four followers, lost their lives, and 20 more were hurt in an explosion caused by a suicide bomber during Friday prayers at a madrasa in the same province.
