Twin attacks

On Wednesday, one attacker detonated his bomb-laden car outside the residence of the deputy chief of the Frontier Corps in Quetta city, before a second attacker blew himself up inside the house, according to police. The attack on the house wounded Deputy Chief Farrukh Shahzad and killed his wife. One of his children is also believed to have been injured.

Seven troops from the Frontier Corps including an army officer were also killed. Security vehicles and motorcycles parked outside Shahzad's residence, where paramilitary forces were waiting to escort him to work, were engulfed in flames from the blasts. A mosque and official residencies nearby were also badly damaged. The death toll is expected to rise further.

The Frontier Corps is Pakistan's paramilitary force. On Monday the army announced the corps had arrested a senior al Qaeda leader believed to have been responsible for planning attacks on the United States, Europe and Australia.

Blow to terror network

Younis al-Mauritani was picked up in the suburbs of Quetta, the main town of Baluchistan province bordering Afghanistan and Iran, along with two other high-ranking operatives after US and Pakistani spy agencies joined forces. The army named the two other senior operatives as Abdul Ghaffar al-Shami and Messara al-Shami.

The arrests signaled another blow to the global terror network, four months after Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan by covert US forces, leading to a souring of ties between allies Islamabad and Washington.

In a possible thaw in relations, the army hailed cooperation between the CIA and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency in the arrests, news of which came just days before the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

Author: Manasi Gopalakrishnan (AFP, AP)

Editor: Grahame Lucas