Suicide bomber hits Islamabad navy headquarters

AFP - A suicide bomber struck near the naval headquarters in Pakistan's capital Islamabad on Wednesday, police said, killing one navy official in the latest attack in the Taliban-troubled nation.

The attacker apparently walked up to a checkpoint at the entrance to the heavily-guarded complex in central Islamabad and detonated his explosives when challenged by security forces, police and witnesses said.

"One naval official embraced martyrdom while two other navy officials were wounded critically," Fazeel Asghar, Islamabad's top administration official, told reporters in remarks broadcast on local television.

Bani Amin, a senior Islamabad police official on the scene, put the wounded toll higher, telling AFP: "It was a suicide attack. Four people were injured -- one is in a critical condition."

An AFP reporter on the scene said that the flesh of the bomber was scattered on the main road in front of the compound.

The attack comes a day after a Pakistani provincial lawmaker was killed in a suicide attack in northwest Swat valley, and as Taliban insurgents up attacks to avenge a multi-pronged military offensive against them.

Islamabad itself was last hit in late October, when twin suicide blasts tore through the International Islamic University, killing up to five people.

Military installations are frequent targets, with a brazen raid and hostage siege on the army headquarters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi in late October hitting the heart of the country's most powerful establishment.