Suicide Bomber Kills 8 Paramilitary Officers in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, April 4 -- A suicide bomber attacked a small paramilitary camp in an exclusive, heavily protected neighborhood of the Pakistani capital Saturday, killing at least eight paramilitary officers before blowing himself up, police said.

The bomber tried to enter the camp, a cluster of tents in a wooded area between two residential streets, just after dark, but then detonated his explosives. The blast was heard several miles away and sent panic through the nearby Jinnah Super Market, which caters to affluent residents.

Witnesses said the 7:30 p.m. blast was followed by a heavy barrage of gunfire.

No group asserted responsibility for the attack, but the leader of a Taliban militia faction in northwestern Pakistan warned earlier in the week that his fighters would soon strike in Islamabad. The leader, Baitullah Mehsud, also claimed that he had carried out an attack on a police academy near Lahore this past week.

Pakistan has been hit by a wave of violence in recent months, including an attack on a Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore last month.

The last major attack in Islamabad was the truck bombing of the luxury Marriott hotel in September, which killed more than 50 people and severely damaged the landmark building near Parliament and the president's house. Saturday's attack took place less than a mile from the Marriott, which has been rebuilt and surrounded with high anti-blast walls.

The Islamabad deputy police commissioner told journalists Saturday that eight members of the Frontier Constabulary had been killed and five wounded. Another police official said 24 corpsmen, who provide security for the high-income residential area, were having dinner when the bomber blew himself up just outside their tented compound.

Some Pakistani television stations reported that there had been a heavy exchange of gunfire between corpsmen and attackers accompanying the suicide bomber, but police officials said the corpsmen only fired into the air. There did not appear to have been any other assailants.

Shabbir Hussain, a resident, said he heard the huge blast, then 10 to 15 minutes of heavy gunfire. "I thought Islamabad has been attacked, and my children and wife started screaming," he said.

President Asif Ali Zardari condemned the attack and reiterated the government's resolve to fight Islamist extremists and violence. "Such acts of terrorism cannot deter the government's determination to fight terrorism in all its forms and manifestations," he said.

Constable reported from Kabul.