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A suicide car bomber detonated his vehicle along a road near a well-known market in Pakistan's northwest city of Peshawar; killing 41 people.
The blast underscores militants' ability to strike in major cities despite US-backed military offensives pressuring their networks.
The attack in the Khyber Bazaar area came as Pakistan's army prepares for another major operation in the al-Qaida and Taliban stronghold of South Waziristan tribal region. The militants have threatened bombings if the army doesn't back off, but the US has continued to prod Pakistan to take action against insurgents using its soil to fuel the insurgency in neighbouring Afghanistan.
Television footage showed the charred skeleton of a bus flipped on its side in the middle of a major road. Twisted remains of a motorbike lay alongside the bus. A nearby vehicle was in flames.
Noor Alam saw the vehicle explode, and suffered wounds on his legs and face. "I saw a blood soaked leg landing close to me," Alam said. "I understood for the first time in my life what a doomsday would look like."
Peshawar Police Chief Liaqat Ali Khan said the attacker was in a car packed with "a huge quantity of explosives and artillery rounds." A minibus apparently carrying passengers nearby was also levelled in the blast.
It came days after a suicide attack killed five at a UN office in the capital, Islamabad and two weeks after another explosion killed 11 in a Peshawar commercial area.
