13 killed in Pakistan suicide attack
No group claimed responsibility for the attack but authorities usually blame such strikes on pro-Taliban militants.
A suicide bomber blew himself up near a police vehicle in Pakistan's troubled northwest today, killing 13 people, including a senior police officer, and injuring 15 others.
The bomber, who was riding a bicycle, exploded his explosive vest as the police van passed through Kachi Paind Khan neighbourhood on the outskirts of Dera Ismail Khan city in Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa province, police said.
Deputy Superintendent of Police Iqbal Khan, his bodyguard and driver, three children and a woman were killed in the attack.
Khan was driving from his home to work when the suicide attacker struck.
Several policemen and passers-by were among the injured.
Witnesses said that the police van and an auto-rickshaw were destroyed by the blast. Earlier reports had said the police van was targeted with a bomb hidden in the auto-rickshaw.
Law enforcement personnel cordoned off the site of the attack as extra contingents of police were deployed in the area.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack but authorities usually blame such strikes on pro-Taliban militants.
Militants regularly target security forces and police in their bloody campaign against the government in Pakistan's northwest.