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A pair of suicide bombers targeting army vehicles detonated explosives within seconds of each other Friday, killing at least 43 people in this eastern city and wounding about 100, police said.
It was the fourth major attack in Pakistan this week, indicating Islamist militants are stepping up violence after a period of relative calm.
Hours later, a series of small explosions terrified residents in a different Lahore neighborhood and injured at least three people. Police officials said the four low-intensity blasts apparently resulted from loose explosives - not packed bombs – scattered through the residential area. While the explosions sent police and rescue workers racing through the area, there were no immediate reports of deaths or major damage.
About 10 of those killed in the twin blasts were soldiers, said Lahore police chief Parvaiz Rathore.
The bombers, who were on foot, struck RA Bazaar, a residential and commercial neighborhood where several security agencies have facilities. Security forces swarmed the area as thick black smoke rose into the sky and bystanders rushed the injured into ambulances. Video being shot with a mobile phone just after the first explosion showed a large burst of orange flame suddenly erupting in the street, according to GEO TV, which broadcast a short clip of the footage shot by Tabraiz Bukhari.
No group immediately claimed responsibility, but suspicion quickly fell on the Pakistani Taliban and al-Qaida. The militants are believed to have been behind scores of attacks
in U.S.-allied Pakistan over the last several years, including a series of strikes that began in October and lasted around three months, killing some 600 people in apparent retaliation for an army offensive along the Afghan border.
