Four children and their parents were killed in a hand-grenade blast in Pakistan's restive northwest today, a day after 12 children were killed by a bomb hidden in a football.
Violence has increased in the region as Taliban fighters have extended their reach. Western allies, needing Pakistan's help to defeat al-Qaeda and stabilise neighbouring Afghanistan, fear the country is in danger of sliding into chaos.
The grenade exploded in a car carrying a couple and their eight children near Datta Kheil, a district in the North Waziristan tribal region, near the Afghan border.
"The parents and four of their children died instantly and their bodies were brought to hospital," Mirbad Khan, a hospital official in Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan, said. "Four other children were wounded."
Authorities were unsure whether the parents were carrying the grenade, or if it was planted in the car.
North Waziristan is one of the major sanctuaries for al-Qaeda and Taliban militants in Pakistani border areas with Afghanistan.
Yesterday, twelve children were killed when they were playing with a bomb hidden in a football and it exploded in Lower Dir, a mountainous, district 260km northeast of Miranshah.
The children, five of them girls, found the ball as they were returning from school. Seven victims belonged to the same family.
Reuters