Pakistan Suicide Bombing Kills 17

A Taliban suicide bomber claimed at least 17 lives in northwestern Pakistan after blowing up a police station today. The bomber detonated a car in an alley behind the police station. Among the victims: nine police officers, four adult civilians, and four children on their way to school. “I said my morning prayers and we went to sleep, then suddenly there was a big bang. All the debris fell on us,” one police official told The Associated Press from a bed in a nearby hospital. The attack occurred in the prosperous town of Lakki Marwat, which sits on the main road between Punjab province and the north and south Waziristan tribal regions. Emergency workers and local residents attempted to move the rubble of the destroyed police station. A nearby mosque was also partially destroyed. The Pakistani Taliban have claimed responsibility for the attack, saying the police have been encouraging locals to establish militias to combat terrorism. “After the police, we will attack those active in forming anti-Taliban lashkars if they have not given up their activities,” a Taliban spokesman told The Associated Press by telephone.