Suicide Bomber Kills Four in Pakistan

A suicide bomber killed an Islamist militant commander in Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar on Monday, along with at least three other people, police said.

The attack damaged a house that the target, Haji Akhunzada, was building in Pakha Ghulam on the outskirts of Peshawar, Pakistan's main northwestern city that runs into a militant-heavy region on the Afghan border.

"It was a suicide attack, four people have been killed. Haji Akhunzada is among the dead," Imtiaz Shah, a senior police officer, told Agence France Presse.

Peshawar has been on the frontline of Islamist suicide attacks and runs into the lawless tribal belt on the Afghan border that is a headquarters for Islamist militant groups including the Taliban and al-Qaida affiliates.

Yameen Khan, another police officer, confirmed that the target was Akhunzada, who was a commander in the Ansar ul-Islam militant group in the tribal district of Khyber.

There has been a relative lull in recent months, but suicide attacks and shootings have killed more than 4,800 across Pakistan since government troops raided an extremist mosque in Islamabad in July 2007.