Pakistan car bomb targets US consulate cars

A US embassy spokesman said no US personnel were seriously wounded in the rush-hour attack in the volatile northwestern city, which runs into the tribal belt that Washington has branded a global headquarters of Al-Qaeda.

Police said two foreigners were lightly wounded and one of the armoured vehicles was damaged by what a bomb disposal official said were 50 kilos of low-grade explosives packed into a car and detonated by remote-control.

Senior police officer Liaquat Ali said a local man riding on a motorbike was killed and 11 others wounded, including two foreigners, although not seriously.

He said that the two foreigners received "minor injuries" and had been discharged from hospital.

Pakistani television showed a vehicle damaged by the explosion, which hurled it against an electricity pole. Police confirmed it was an armoured car.

Such vehicles are well-known in Pakistan to be favoured by Western diplomats and senior UN mission employees.

There was no immediate claim for the attack, but last Friday the Pakistani Taliban claimed a devastating bomb attack that killed 89 people outside a police training centre in the northwest.

A spokesman said the bombings were the first revenge for Osama bin Laden's death and threatened further attacks on Pakistani and US targets.

Friday's blast came one day after US envoy Marc Grossman held talks with Pakistan's leadership in Islamabad, stepping up efforts to smooth over a crisis sparked by the US Navy SEALs raid that killed the Al-Qaeda chief on 2 May.

In the second high-profile American visit to Pakistan in days, the envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan held talks with President Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan's army chief General Ashfaq Kayani and other senior cabinet ministers.

US Senator John Kerry visited on Monday and later insisted that Pakistan was stepping up efforts to battle extremists and help stabilise Afghanistan, where US-led troops are trying to end a 10-year Taliban insurgency.

If further high-profile Pakistani-US talks go well, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to decide "when and if" to visit the country.

Pakistan's civilian and military leaders were left angry and embarrassed over the unilateral US raid that killed Al-Qaeda's chief, who had been living, possibly for years, in a military academy town two hours' drive from Islamabad.

It rocked the country's seemingly powerful security establishment, with its intelligence services and military widely accused of incompetence or complicity over the presence of bin Laden in a suburban house in the city of Abbottabad.