(RTTNews) - A suicide-bomber struck outside a court Thursday in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province's (NWFP) capital Peshawar, killing 16 persons and injuring 26 others in the latest instance of a wave of terror attacks in that Islamic nation.

Witnesses said the blast emanated from a car parked within the court premises on the busy Khyber Road, close to the Pearl Continental Hotel, targeted by a truck bomb earlier this year. Several vehicles were destroyed in the explosion that occurred during the morning rush hour.

However, the head of the Peshawar city administration reportedly said that the suicide-bomber blew himself up when he was being body-searched by a police officer at the gate of the court complex.

Security officials cordoned off the area, and Khyber Road was closed for traffic. The head of Lady Reading Hospital told reporters that 16 bodies, including three of policemen, were brought to the hospital.

Peshawar, located near the Afghan border, experienced at least five major attacks in the last month. Thursday's attack came after a suicide car-bomb attack last Friday on the office of Pakistan's main intelligence agency, the ISI, on the same road that killed over 12 persons and injured 40 others.
A month ago, a huge car-bomb ripped through Peshawar's busy Peepal Mandi grocery market, killing more than 100 persons, mainly women and children.

Attacks in the impoverished, terrorist-infected Islamic country have increased as the army continues its offensive against Pakistani-Taliban fighters in the country's semi-autonomous lawless ethnic Pashtun region of South Waziristan.

The country has been on heightened alert since mid-October when government forces launched an offensive in South Waziristan against the Taliban as a sequel to a wave of attacks all over the country that has killed hundreds of persons.

Islamabad blames the increasing attacks on Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which wants to counter the ongoing offensive by its security forces and wants to avenge the killing of their leader Baitullah Mehsud by a U.S. missile in August.

by RTT Staff Writer

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