Deadly explosion kills 105 in Pakistan

A devastating car bomb exploded in a market in the northwest city of Peshawar, an attack aimed at civilians and marking a clear escalation in the Taliban campaign to undermine the government. The bomb tore through a congested area of narrow alleys and crowded stalls in Peshawar’s old city, killing as many as 105 people, most of them women, and wounding about 200. A Pakistani official, who did not want to be identified, described it as the most serious in the history of a city that has become a frontline of Taliban terrorist attacks in recent weeks. This was the most deadly by far.
The explosion came about three hours after Mrs. Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State, arrived in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, a two-hour drive away from the place of explosion.
The blast hit a crowded market called Meena Bazar selling bangles, dresses and toys in an old part of town crisscrossed with narrow alleys. It set scores of shops on fire, collapsed buildings, including a mosque, and sent a cloud of gray smoke over the city. This was the deadliest in a surge of attacks which started in the first week of this month.