Pakistan Pakistan bombing kills soldiers and civilians 12/08/08 19:31 CET

An attack on a Pakistani Air Force bus in the northwestern city of Peshawar has left at least 13 people dead, wounding ten others. Police said an improvised bomb at a bridge on a main road into the capital of North West Frontier Province was triggered by remote control. Pakistani Taliban said the blast was the group’s response to military operations against al Qaeda and Taliban militants.

The authorities said the dead included five air force personnel and eight civilians. A security official meanwhile said one of Al Qaeda’s top commanders, Abu Saeed al-Masri, was killed near the Afghan border in recent clashes with Pakistani forces. Al-Masri was the most senior al Qaeda member to have been killed in Pakistan’s tribal belt since a chemical and biological weapons expert was killed last month.