Northwest Pakistan Suicide Bombing Kills at Least 19

Attack on Police Station Also Killed Four Schoolchildren

At least 19 people were killed today and 57 others wounded when a suicide truck bomber attacked a police station in the Lakki Marwat District in the Khyber Pakhtoonwhah Province (formerly Northwest Frontier Province). The district borders South Waziristan.

The attack killed at least nine police and wounded a large number of others, and also killed at least four schoolchildren who were said to be walking past the station at the time of the attack. Officials said security at the station was much lower than normal because of the flooding crisis.

The attack was the first in the region in months, but a previous attack in early January against a volleyball game killed at least 89 people and wounded large numbers of others.

So far it is unclear which militant faction was responsible for today’s attack, but increasingly a number of attacks have targeted the security forces across Pakistan, and their ability to provide security for themselves, let alone the rest of the nation, remains in serious doubt.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.