Two car bombs kill at least 16, dozens injured in northwestern Pakistan

(NECN/GEO TV/APTV) – Two suicide car bombs killed 16 people and wounded about 150 others in separate attacks in northwestern Pakistan on Saturday, just days after the Taliban warned suicide strikes were coming if the military pressed forward with an offensive in the area. The worst attack took place when a bomb detonated around noon local time outside a bank affiliated with the army in Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province, police said. Ten people were killed and 79 wounded, according to Mohammed Hamid, a doctor at a government hospital. Video from the scene showed widespread damage, with gutted buildings and vehicles destroyed by the blast. Security personnel, including at least one rescue or sniffer dog, searched the scene. Onlookers stood on balconies of buildings near the explosion filming the scene with their mobile phones. A local police commander says estimated at least 60 kilograms (132 pounds) of explosives were used in the bombing. Most of the casualties were customers in the bank or people on the street outside. Earlier on Saturday, a suicide blast also hit a police station in the province’s Bannu district earlier Saturday, killing at least six people and wounding nearly 70 others, police said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for that attack. A third bomb also injured four in the region.