Eight killed in suicide attack

A suicide bomber killed up to eight paramilitary police at a tented camp in Pakistan's capital late yesterday, the second such attack in Islamabad in less than two weeks, officials said.

It was the latest in a wave of bomb attacks that have killed more than 1,700 people in the nuclear-armed key US ally since government forces fought gunmen holed up in a radical Islamabad mosque in July 2007.

The violence underscores the enormity of the challenge facing the United States, which has unveiled a sweeping new strategy to defeat Islamist militants in south Asia, putting Pakistan at the heart of the fight against Al-Qaeda. "A suicide bomber entered from the back of the camp and exploded himself. This is Frontier Constabulary (FC) camp number seven," said Binia Amin, operations police chief in the capital. Police put up search lights as they collected evidence from the camp, encircled by barbed wire, in the pitch black.

The cloth had been stripped off one tent, leaving just the wooden bamboo frame still standing, and only the rag of a grey shirt remained clinging to a makeshift clothes line after the explosion, said an AFP reporter.

"There are eight dead now," Amin told reporters, revising up an earlier death toll of up to six. Asked if all eight belonged to the Frontier Constabulary he said: "Yes."

Four other people were wounded and 32 FC men were present in the camp at the time of the attack, the police official said.

The FC, part of Pakistan's paramilitary force, deploy outside diplomatic missions and protect VIP homes.

A local Islamabad administration official confirmed the casualty numbers and said it seemed as though there was a lone attacker, adding that two severed legs had been recovered at the site - presumably those of the bomber.