Blast Hits Peshawar Security HQ

A suicide car bomb attack on Pakistan's main intelligence agency in the city of Peshawar has killed at least 12 people and injured 40, officials say. Another five people died in a separate suicide car bomb attack at a police station in the Baka Khel area in the North West Frontier Province. The Peshawar blast destroyed the three-storey building of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency. The city has been frequently targeted by militants in recent weeks. More than 100 people were killed in a blast at a market in Peshawar two weeks ago. Attacks across Pakistan have dramatically increased as the army continues its offensive against the Taliban in the South Waziristan region. The Peshawar blast occurred at around 0630 (0130 GMT), Pakistani media said.The first building in the ISI provincial headquarters complex collapsed, with huge clouds of smoke rising into the sky, the BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan in Islamabad says. Most of the dead were army and security officials. Many people are still trapped under the debris and army soldiers are trying to pull out survivors, our correspondent says. Many of the wounded have been rushed to local hospitals. "I was busy at work then suddenly I heard gunfire. I saw a vehicle moving towards the ISI building and then there was a huge blast. I was thrown to the ground," news agency AFP quoted Azmat Ali, a 30-year-old mechanic as saying. "I don't remember anything else, but there was dust everywhere," he said. Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani condemned the attack, saying his country's resolve to deal with militancy would not be weakened. The city has been on high alert for weeks. Schools were closed after the attack. The last time an ISI building was targeted was in May, when 24 people were killed in a suicide attack in the eastern city of Lahore. The blast at the Baka Khel police station in the North-West Frontier Province killed three and wounded at least 15 people, police said. Baka Khel is near Bannu town, close to the tribal region of North Waziristan, a Taliban stronghold. The latest attacks come one day after 17 Pakistani soldiers were killed in fighting in South Waziristan - the military's deadliest day since launching a major offensive there in mid October, security officials said. Analysts have said that ordinary citizens are increasingly being targeted because the militants are cornered and under great pressure from the military. Despite the mounting death toll, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Wednesday that the government was "fully committed" to completing the Waziristan offensive and "eliminating terrorism completely".