Naval bus attacks kill four in Karachi

Bomb attacks ripped through two buses carrying Pakistani navy officials in Karachi on Tuesday, killing four people in the latest sign of rampant insecurity in a nation key to US hopes of beating the Taliban.

Nearly 60 people were wounded when remote-controlled bombs exploded beside the buses at rush hour in different parts of Pakistan's economic hub, which is used by NATO as a coordinating post for supplying troops in Afghanistan.

Attacks on Pakistani security personnel are rare in Karachi and on Tuesday's assaults came one day after leaked documents showed US investigators considered Pakistan's military intelligence agency to be a terrorist group.

Officials said four people were killed in the attacks and the Pakistani navy, based largely in Karachi, identified them all as its employees.

"The four dead were navy officials including a lady doctor, a sub-lieutenant, a sailor and a civilian employee," Pakistani Navy Spokesman Commander Salman Ali told AFP.

"Fifty-seven people were injured in the two attacks and of them, 50 were navy officials," he added.

Provincial government official Sharfuddin Memon told AFP that the first bomb was planted on a motorbike parked in the up-market Defense Housing Scheme and the second hidden in rubbish in the impoverished Baldia town neighborhood.

Intelligence officials said that the bombs were triggered by remote control near buses carrying naval personnel.

Authorities quickly blamed Islamist organizations linked to the Taliban and Al Qaeda, such as Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, which was involved in the Karachi kidnap and beheading of US journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002.

Bomb attacks have killed more than 4,200 people across the country since July 2007, and the US considers Pakistan's northwestern border areas with Afghanistan the global headquarters of Al Qaeda.

"We suspect the signature of terrorist organizations," Memon told AFP.

Karachi is home to Pakistan's stock exchange and a lifeline for a depressed economy wilting under inflation.