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PESHAWAR, Pakistan : The death toll from a suicide car bombing at a police checkpoint in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar rose to 15 on Sunday, police and administrative officials said.
The bomber detonated his cache of explosives on Saturday as police tried to stop and search his vehicle at a checkpost in the city, which sits on the edge of the Taliban-infested tribal belt and has been beset by suicide attacks.
"The death toll has risen to 15. Twenty-one injured people are still being treated in the hospitals," said senior Peshawar police official Karim Khan.
Peshawar district administration chief Sahibzada Anis confirmed the toll in the blast, the fourth suicide attack in beleaguered Peshawar in a week.
"Four critically injured people including a child succumbed to their injuries in hospitals," Anis told AFP.
The Taliban have claimed responsibility for Saturday's blast and a suicide bombing which killed 17 people Friday at the Peshawar headquarters of the powerful Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) agency.
The devastating attacks come as Pakistani troops press on with their most ambitious offensive yet against Taliban militants in mountain strongholds in South Waziristan on the Afghan border.
Militants have warned of more strikes to come to avenge the military push.
The most devastating bomb attack in Pakistan in two years killed at least 118 people in a crowded Peshawar market on October 28. - AFP/ms
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