Two suicide bombers targeting a senior security official struck near government offices in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta on Wednesday, killing at least 15 people, a police official said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Pakistan's Taliban militants, who are close to al Qaeda, often carry out such attacks as part of a campaign designed to topple the U.S.-backed government.
Autonomy-seeking militants demanding a greater share of the profits from oil and other resources in the province of Baluchistan, of which Quetta is the capital, have also waged a low-level insurgency for decades.
One of the suicide bombers blew himself up in a vehicle packed with explosives near the car of the deputy head of the paramilitary Frontier Corps in Baluchistan, Farrukh Shehzad.
The other suicide bomber entered his house and blew himself up. The dead included his guards. The explosions brought down the walls of his house and nearby offices.
Although al Qaeda is reeling from the killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan by U.S. special forces, the Pakistani Taliban are still highly effective. They vowed to avenge bin Laden's death.
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