A suicide bomber struck outside the gates of a district court in Islamabad on Tuesday, detonating his explosives next to a police car and killing 12 people, Pakistan's interior minister said, the latest in an uptick in violence across the country.
Witnesses described scenes of mayhem in the immediate aftermath of the explosion, which also wounded 27 people. The blast was heard for miles away and came at a busy time of day when the area outside the court is typically crowded with hundreds of visitors attending court hearings.
A breakaway faction of the Pakistani Taliban, the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar group, claimed responsibility for the attack. But shortly after, Sarbakaf Mohmand, a commander from the group, sent WhatsApp messages insisting they had not made any such claim.
His group quit the Pakistani Taliban, or TTP, after the head of Jamaat-ul-Ahrar was killed in a blast in Afghanistan in 2022. Though some members recently rejoined TTP, others keep their distance, indicating continuing differences among the insurgents.
US special envoy for Syria Tom Barrack defended the Syrian government on Tuesday after Israeli air...
The Palestinian American whose home in the occupied West Bank has been besieged by Israeli settlers...
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday, Aug. 18 that Kyiv and Brussels are working on finalizing a...
