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Pakistan Car Bombing Kills 30; Intelligence Officials Among the Dead


Pakistani officials are blaming Taliban militants for a bombing that brought down a police station in the eastern city of Lahore, killing 30 people and wounding more than 200 others.

Officials said Wednesday the blast also severely damaged several nearby buildings, including an office of the country's top intelligence agency, whose agents are reported to be among the dead.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the deadly attack appears to be retaliation for an ongoing military offensive against militants in the country's northwest Swat Valley.

Officials say the militants drove up to the police station and started shooting before setting off the bomb.

Officials say four suspects have been arrested.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the bombing, saying no cause can justify "such indiscriminate terrorist violence."

Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says it is suspending aid operations in the Swat Valley because the area has become too dangerous.

ICRC President Jakob Kellenberger said Wednesday in Geneva that the agency will resume its humanitarian operations in Swat as soon as the security situation for its workers improves.

The Pakistani army launched the offensive in Swat earlier this month after militants violated a peace deal and advanced within 100 kilometers of the capital, Islamabad.

Pakistani army officials said Wednesday that forces had killed 12 militants within the past day and predicted Swat's main town of Mingora will be cleared of militants in the next two to three days.

Fighting rages on in other parts of the area but officials say some displaced Pakistanis are being told they can return to their homes.

The U.N. refugee agency's Kilian Kleinschmidl tells VOA (Urdu Service) that about 200,000 people are still trapped by the fighting and that without more supplies they will soon face a "humanitarian crisis."

The agency said Tuesday that fighting in the Swat Valley and surrounding areas has caused one of the fastest displacements in recent years with nearly 2.4 million people displaced this month, at a rate of 126,000 people a day.

Pakistan's army says about 1,100 militants and at least 63 soldiers have been killed in the offensive in Swat Valley and surrounding areas. However, government reports can not be independently verified.

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