Suicide blasts kill 57 at Pakistan arms factory

Two suicide bombers blew themselves up outside Pakistan's main military arms factory Thursday, killing 57 people and piling new pressure on the shaky coalition government to tackle militancy.

The attackers struck almost simultaneously as a crowd of workers was streaming out of the huge factory complex in the northern town of Wah, near Islamabad. It is one of the country's most sensitive installations.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, the second to rock Pakistan since Pervez Musharraf resigned as president on Monday, and warned of further blasts if army operations near the Afghan border are not stopped.

"It's a massive attack," local police chief Nasir Durrani told AFP. "Two men apparently blew themselves up outside the factory during a shift change. The bombers were on foot and they exploded themselves less than a minute apart."

He said that 57 people were confirmed dead and around 70 wounded.

The charred body of a bearded man, believed to be one of the bombers, lay on the road outside one of the gates, an AFP journalist saw. A severed leg, abandoned shoes and several mangled bicycles were scattered nearby. continue reading here