>Suicide Bomber Attacks Funeral in Northwest Pakistan

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Pakistani officials say a suicide bomber blew himself up in the country’s northwest, killing at least 34 people and wounding at least 60 others.

Officials say the attack Wednesday targeted a group of about 200 mourners attending a funeral near the city of Peshawar. The funeral was for the wife of an anti-Taliban tribal militiaman from an area known for bloody clashes between Taliban and pro-government fighters.

The bombing comes a day after a car bombing killed at least 24 people near the offices of Pakistan’s main intelligence agency in the eastern city of Faisalabad.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s blast, which also wounded more than 125 people.

A Taliban spokesman said the group was targeting the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, or ISI, in retaliation for the killing of a Taliban commander in the city.

The car bomb ignited gas cylinders at a nearby service station, triggering an even bigger blast that damaged several buildings — including an office of Pakistan’s state airline.

Piles of bricks from the destroyed service station and scraps of metal from damaged cars littered the scene as rescue workers pulled victims from the rubble.

Faisalabad is home to Pakistan’s textile industry.

>Faisalabad, Pakistan car bomb kills 13

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A car bomb exploded in a neighborhood full of government buildings in eastern Pakistan on Tuesday, killing 13 people and wounding dozens, officials said. An office of Pakistan’s state-run airline and a local gas station were severely damaged in the blast, in Faisalabad city.

The explosion underscored the tenuous security situation in this U.S.-allied, nuclear-armed country, where al-Qaida and the Taliban have proliferated. Such attacks have often been chalked up to militant retaliation against army offensives against them.

Senior government official Tahir Hussain said that 13 people died in the blast.

The car bomb apparently triggered a gas cylinder to also explode at the fuel station, adding to the destruction, Faisalabad police chief Aftab Cheema said. Police offices as well as the Pakistan International Airlines building are nearby.

Pakistani TV showed piles of bricks and chunks of twisted metal from cars strewn across the neighborhood. Rescue workers struggled to pull victims out of the rubble. More than 50 people were wounded, police official Liaquat Ahmed said.

Most attacks carried out by Islamist militants in Pakistan occur in the northwest regions near the border with Afghanistan, and the primary victims tend to be police or other security forces.

Faisalabad, 160 miles (260 kilometers) south of Islamabad, is a key hub for Pakistan’s textile industry and it has rarely been targeted. However, it lies in Punjab province, where Islamist extremist groups are believed to be growing in strength.

The U.S. has pushed Pakistan to crack down on Islamist extremist groups in its borders, saying they threaten not only Western troops engaged in the Afghan war effort but also the stability of Pakistan itself.