Militants stepped up their fight against the Pakistani government on Friday, ramming a truck bomb into a regional office of the country’s main intelligence agency. The early-morning blast in the northwestern city of Peshawar killed at least 9 people and wounded more than 50, the authorities said, in what has become a grimly familiar cycle of violence. An attack on a police station in a different area left as many as six dead.
The violence comes as Gen. James L. Jones, President Obama’s national security adviser, began a two-day visit to the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, for meetings with President Asif Ali Zardari and other senior Pakistani officials. On Friday morning, he met with the army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. There was no doubt about the target or the motive of the bombing on Friday: Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate, is a prominent symbol of military power, and militants have struck at it in different cities in Pakistan.
The military is conducting a campaign against insurgents in the western mountains of Waziristan, an offensive that has led to a sharp increase in reprisals by militants.

Source: The New York Times (13 November)