Police say twin suicide bombings in northwest Pakistan kil1 11 people

Pakistan: 2 suicide blasts aimed at police kill 11

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Two suicide bombers struck outside a police complex in northwest Pakistan on Thursday, killing 11 people and underscoring the relentless security threat despite army operations and U.S. missile strikes against al-Qaida and the Taliban.

The second blast came as rescuers responded to the first — a militant tactic seen before in Pakistan, but not often. Of the 11 dead, six were police officers, while the 30 people wounded included the city’s police chief, said Maqbool Khan, a police official.

Militants have carried out numerous attacks on security forces over the past several years to undermine the public’s confidence in the already-weak state. On Wednesday, a suicide bomber killed 10 police officers and seven civilians in the Khyber tribal region.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for Thursday’s attacks, which were carried out by attackers on foot outside a gate to the police complex, but suspicion is likely to fall on the Pakistani Taliban.

The suicide bombings come amid growing certainty that the militant group’s top commander, Hakimullah Mehsud, died from wounds sustained in a U.S. missile strike in mid-January. The Taliban have denied he is dead, but failed to offer proof that he is alive.

A potential succession struggle in the wake of Mehsud’s death could temporarily weaken the Pakistani Taliban but is unlikely to cripple its ability to carry out deadly attacks.

The Pakistani military has pursued the militant group in its main stronghold, the South Waziristan tribal region, for months, and has managed to dismantle a good deal of its infrastructure. But many of the militants are believed to have fled to other areas in the tribal belt or just outside it.