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.



Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, advised Donald Trump not to host Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the...
A broad coalition of former high-ranking Israeli officials, including former prime ministers and defence chiefs, have...
Iran’s top joint military command said on Saturday morning that it will close the Strait of...
Norway's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has proposed a bill to ban trade with Israeli settlements in...





























