At least 18 people were killed in a series of deadly bombing attacks, marring the start of newly re-elected Afghan President Hamid Karzai's second term in office and highlighting the challenges that lie ahead.
A suicide bomber drove an explosives-laden car into a police checkpoint in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar on Saturday, killing ten people, according to police officials in the latest attack to hit the restive city.
Northern Pakistan has been hit by its third suicide bombing in three days, an attack on a crowded market in the town of Charsadda killed 32 people and wounded 100, according to regional officials.
A suicide car bomb ripped through a busy market area on Sunday in the Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar, killing several people including an anti-Taliban mayor.
At least 35 people were killed and dozens injured in a suicide blast near a luxury hotel in Pakistan's garrison city of Rawalpindi. The attack was followed by another double bombing at a Lahore police checkpoint.
Al Qaeda's Iraqi wing has claimed responsibility for Sunday's double suicide bombings in Baghdad that killed around 100 people and wounded over 500 more.
Baghdad's governor on Monday blamed "negligence or collusion" by the security forces for twin bombings at the justice ministry and provincial government headquarters that killed more than 100 people on Sunday.
A suicide bomber walked up to a checkpoint and blew himself up near a major Pakistan Air Force base Friday, killing at least six people and wounding another nine, police said.
Pakistani officials say the army has fought fierce battles with heavily armed Taliban fighters after it launched a long-awaited ground offensive in the tribal regions of South Waziristan near the Afghan border.
