Suicide Bombings

In the first major suicide attack since the assassination of Benazir Bhutto two weeks ago, a bomber blew himself up Thursday in front of a provincial high court building, killing at least 23 people and injuring more than 60 others. The attack in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore was viewed as a possible harbinger of a new outbreak of violence in the weeks remaining before crucial parliamentary elections on Feb. 18. Police were put on high alert across the country.

Nine people were killed and at least 25 wounded Thursday night when a teenage suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowded Shiite Muslim prayer hall in this border region. The attack marked the onset of sectarian violence that often flares in Pakistan during Ashura, the annual religious holiday when Shiites mourn the death of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the prophet Muhammad. Shiites are a minority in Pakistan.

A bomber walked undetected into a funeral Monday evening and blew himself up, killing as many as 17 others and injuring nine in a predominantly Sunni village near Tikrit, police said. The explosion in Hajaj village killed Iraqis attending a funeral for Antar Abdullah, a tribal leader and brother of the Salahuddin provincial governor's security chief. The security officer, Ahmed Abdullah, left the funeral minutes before the attack and was not injured.

Shattered glass has been replaced, debris swept away and guests have begun trickling back to the Serena Hotel more than two weeks after Taliban militants killed seven staff members and visitors, sending a shudder through Kabul's foreign community. The psychological damage is proving to be harder to repair.

Bombs tore through two popular pet markets here Friday, killing 77 people, in the worst violence to hit Baghdad since a U.S. troop buildup reached its peak in July. The apparently coordinated attacks, occurring within 10 minutes of each other, were reminiscent of large-scale suicide bombings before the buildup and underscored what U.S. military officials have warned are the shifting tactics of insurgents. At least one of the attackers was a woman with explosives strapped to her.

Re "A suicidal epidemic," editorial, Feb. 10 I don't find myself saying this too often, but The Times makes an excellent point, albeit a week late. Two mentally disabled women were strapped with explosives and sent into a crowded market, and you correctly ask, where is the outpouring of disgust from the Muslim world? Perhaps we'd see that outrage if, instead of killing and maiming dozens of innocent Iraqis, the women with Down syndrome had picked up a crayon and drawn a cartoon of the prophet Muhammad.

Iraqi soldiers spotted a suspicious-looking woman Sunday in an upscale neighborhood of Baghdad and fired at her after seeing wires in her hands. The woman, dressed in a traditional abaya, was carrying explosives that blew up as she staggered into a nearby electronics shop. Iraqi police said three people were killed in addition to the bomber and eight injured in the blast in Karada. The U.S. military, however, said the only fatality was the bomber.

In separate deadly attacks Monday, a suicide bomber killed the army's surgeon general and seven other people, and gunmen burst into the offices of a British-based aid group in northern Pakistan, shooting four local staffers to death and burning down their building.

A suicide bomber killed at least 38 people and wounded scores Friday at a police officer's funeral in the country's troubled northwest, officials said. The attack in the scenic Swat valley was a graphic reminder of the rising Islamic insurgency confronting the country's new leadership. Opposition parties won the Feb. 18 elections and are in the process of forming a government.

A pair of car bombings, at least one of them a suicide attack, killed 26 Iraqis and injured dozens in Baghdad on Monday, Iraqi security and hospital officials said. The U.S. military put the death toll at 11. The reason for the discrepancy was not immediately clear. The violence came despite stepped-up security as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited the capital. It did not affect his trip. The number of attacks has dropped more than 60% since the U.S. finished deploying an additional 28,500 troops to Iraq last summer, according to U.S. figures.