Pakistani police kill 2 suspected suicide bombers in northwest

Pakistan police kill 2 suspected bombers in NW

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Police killed two suspected suicide bombers during a raid in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday, officials said, further rattling the Afghan border region following attacks on the U.S. Consulate and a political rally that killed at least 53 people.

The clashes illustrate the persistent strength of militants in Pakistan despite army offensives and U.S. missile strikes designed to thin insurgent ranks. They also came after a warning of more attacks from a top Pakistani Taliban commander.

Police raided a hide-out Tuesday in the Mittani area on the outskirts of Peshawar after receiving a tip, sparking a shootout. One of the two alleged attackers killed was wearing a suicide vest, said Laiquat Ali, a senior police official.

On Monday, Islamist militants used car bombs and grenades to strike the U.S. Consulate in Peshawar. Officials raised the death toll in the consulate attack to eight Tuesday. None of the dead were U.S. citizens, but several were security guards working for the consulate.

Officials said four attackers in two vehicles had hoped to breach the heavily fortified compound and kill people inside. The blasts, some of which were filmed by local television stations, sent huge mushroom clouds over the city.

The White House condemned the blasts, while U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said she was “outraged.”

Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which comes after a relative lull in violence this year. The previous week, Waliur Rehman, a senior militant commander with the Pakistani Taliban, warned that the network was planning strikes to avenge the Pakistani army’s offensives against them and Islamabad’s alliance with the U.S.

The U.S. is only one of three countries to have a diplomatic presence in Peshawar, the largest city in the northwest and home to its regional government and security force commands.

It has long been a vital hub for American interests in the region, taking on even more importance as the U.S. has struggled to put down the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.

Earlier Monday, a suicide bombing at a political rally in the northwest killed 45 people and wounded 77.

The gathering in the Timergarah area of Lower Dir district, which borders Afghanistan, was being held to celebrate the government-supported proposal to change the name of North West Frontier Province to Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa.