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Suicide motorcyclist rams Pakistani army bus

"There was a big ball of fire and smoke. Some pellets from the bomb hit the wall of my shop and I dived down, because I was injured in the arm in another blast that happened at this spot last year."

Haji Shaukat, tire shop owner

A suicide attacker rammed a bomb-laden motorbike into a Pakistani army bus taking medical staff to work yesterday in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, killing five people, police said.

The bomber struck during the morning rush-hour near the heavily guarded headquarters of the Pakistani military, mangling the minibus and damaging several other cars.

Security officials cordoned off the area.

Pakistan has been hit by a spike in violence linked to its struggle against Taliban and al-Qaeda militants, raising fears for security in the nuclear-armed Islamic nation ahead of key elections scheduled for Feb. 18.

"It was a suicide attack, it appears that a man on a motorcycle packed with explosives rammed the bus," said Basharat Abbasi, the officer in charge of the local police station.

"Five people are confirmed dead and 25 are injured, some of them critically. We have launched an investigation," he said.

The army confirmed that four military personnel on the bus "embraced martyrdom" in a suicide attack, while a senior security official said a civilian in another vehicle also died.

The bus contained personnel from a military medical school in the city, security officials said. Most were trainees, but one officer was among the dead, they said.

The blast blew off the roof, windows and doors of the bus, leaving it a charred wreck. Troops covered remains with a white tent while military police ordered journalists to stay away from the scene.

Eyewitness Shiraz Khalid, a motor mechanic, said he was buying breakfast when he heard a huge blast and rushed to the scene.

"The bus was completely destroyed. I saw dozens of people lying injured and dead on the road, covered in blood -- most were wearing army uniforms. One was a woman," Khalid said. "We shifted at least three people to hospital before the army came."

Another witness, Haji Shaukat Khan, said he was opening his tire shop in the Royal Artillery Bazaar about 200m from the scene when he heard a "gigantic explosion."

"There was a big ball of fire and smoke. Some pellets from the bomb hit the wall of my shop and I dived down, because I was injured in the arm in another blast that happened at this spot last year," he said.

Rawalpindi has experienced a series of attacks on security forces in recent months which have been attributed to al-Qaeda and Taliban militants based in Pakistan's northwestern tribal regions bordering Afghanistan.

A gun and suicide bomb attack on a political rally in a Rawalpindi park claimed the life of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto on Dec. 27 and forced the postponement of national elections.

A suicide bomber killed seven people near Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's military office in the city on Oct. 30. Musharraf has since given up his role as chief of the army.

Two suicide bombers also blew themselves up in the city on Sept. 4 last year, killing 25 people. Most of the dead were in a bus taking intelligence officials to work.

All of those blasts have been blamed on an al-Qaeda-linked tribal warlord, Baitullah Mehsud.

Fighting between Pakistani forces and militants in the tribal areas has claimed more than 300 lives since the start of the year.

A US missile fired by a pilotless drone killed a senior al-Qaeda commander in the tribal region of North Waziristan last week. Seven soldiers were killed in a presumed revenge attack in the area on Friday.
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