Pakistan suicide bomber kills four women in Peshawar

A suicide bomber killed four women in northwest Pakistan on Monday in an attempted attack on mourners at a funeral, police said. The blast hit a house in Peshawar, a frontline city in Pakistan's battle against Islamist insurgents, close to where a group of people were holding funeral prayers, senior police official Najeeb Ur Rehman told AFP. According to Rehman, the mourners spotted three would-be suicide bombers coming towards them but managed to scare them off. Two fled the scene while the third entered a nearby home, unconnected to the mourners, and blew himself up at the entrance, said Rehman.

"Four women died and six people were wounded in the suicide blast," he said. Shafqat Malik, chief of Peshawar's Bomb Disposal Unit, confirmed the suicide attack and told AFP that the bomber used around six kilograms (13 pounds) of explosives along with ball bearings in his suicide vest. Jamil Shah, a spokesman for Peshawar's main Lady Reading hospital where all the dead bodies and injured were taken, told AFP that five of the injured were women. The attack highlights Pakistan's fragile security situation as the government is engaged in peace talks with the Taliban. At least eight people were killed in a suicide attack in the northwestern city of Peshawar last week. The insurgents have set tough terms for peace talks, demanding the release of all imprisoned fighters and the withdrawal of troops from the tribal areas.