Bomb blasts kill 16 children in Pakistan

Four children and their parents were killed in a hand-grenade blast in Pakistan's restive northwest today, a day after 12 children…

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."

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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