Bomb Blast Kills 18 in NW Pakistan

Posted June 5th, 2011 at 3:15 pm (UTC-5)
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Officials in northwestern Pakistan say at least 18 people were killed and more than 35 others wounded in a blast that ripped through a bakery in the town of Nowshera.

There are conflicting reports about what caused the blast late Sunday. The Associated Press quotes local police as saying a suicide bomber was responsible. But Agence France Press quotes provincial information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain as saying a remote-controlled bomb was planted at the entrance of the bakery.

It was the second bomb blast of the day in the northwest. An earlier explosion killed six people and wounded at least 10 others at bus stop in Matani, a town near the city of Peshawar.

The bombings are the latest in a wave of bloodshed to hit Pakistan since the U.S. raid that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in the Pakistani garrison city of Abbottabad in early May.