Pakistan mosque suicide bomber kills 59, wounds over 150 others

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — A suicide bomber struck a crowded mosque inside a police compound in Pakistan on Monday, causing the roof to collapse and killing at least 59 people and wounding more than 150 others, officials said.

Most of the casualties were police officers. It was not clear how the bomber was able to slip into the walled compound, which houses the police headquarters in the northwestern city of Peshawar and is itself located in a highsecurity zone with other government buildings.

Sarbakaf Mohmand, a commander for the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack on Twitter. The main spokesman for the militant group was not immediately available for comment.

"The sheer scale of the human tragedy is unimaginable. This is no less than an attack on Pakistan," tweeted Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, who visited the wounded in Peshawar and vowed "stern action" against those behind the bombing. He expressed his condolences to families of the victims, saying their pain "cannot be described in words."

Pakistan, which is mostly Sunni Muslim, has seen a surge in militant attacks since November, when the Pakistani Taliban ended their cease-fire with government forces.

Earlier this month, in another attack claimed by the Pakistani Taliban, a gunman shot and killed two intelligence officers, including the director of the counterterrorism wing of the country's military-based spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence. Security officials said Monday the gunman was traced and killed in a shootout in the northwest near the Afghan border.

Monday's assault on a Sunni mosque inside the police facility was one of the deadliest attacks on security forces in recent years.

The militant group, also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, is separate from but a close ally of the Afghan Taliban. The TTP has waged an insurgency in Pakistan in the past 15 years, seeking stricter enforcement of Islamic laws, the release of its members in government custody and a reduction in the Pakistani military presence in areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province it has long used as its base.

Brodie Johnson • Times-Herald The Forrest City Public Works Department is performing maintenance on its vehicles and machinery in preparation for severe winter weather. FCPWD employee Tony Morgan fits, tightens and oils a chainsaw blade this morning to prepare for the possibility of downed tree limbs following possible freezing rain.