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Taliban Suicide Attack Kills 5 in Pakistan

A Pakistani police officer inspects the scene of a previous terror attack.
A Pakistani police officer inspects the scene of a previous terror attack.

A suicide bombing, claimed by the Pakistani Taliban faction, has killed three policemen and two passersby in the administrative headquarters of a tribal region in northwestern Pakistan, officials said.

The explosion went off at the main gate of the tribal headquarters in Ghalanai in the Mohmand tribal region, just as the workday was about to start on Wednesday, said Hameedullah Khan, a local government official, Aljazeera reported.

A breakaway faction of the Pakistani Taliban, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar group, claimed the attack in a statement sent to media.

The Pakistani Army said the bomber was accompanied by another fighter, who tried to force his way into the compound after the explosion went off but that security guards opened fire and killed him.

Wednesday’s attack, and another suicide bombing that killed 13 in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore on Monday, reflects an increase in assaults by armed groups after almost a three-month lull.

The Jamaat-ul-Ahrar group claimed the Lahore attack. Seven police officers died in that bombing, including a former chief of the province’s counterterrorism department.

A spokesman for the group warned in a statement that the blast was “just the start”.

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