ISLAMABAD — A suicide bomber on a bicycle attacked a major Pakistani air base Friday, killing seven people in an escalating campaign that strikes at the heart of this nuclear-armed nation’s security forces.
The strike was one of three bombings in northwest Pakistan that killed 24 people and wounded at least 28 as the army pushed a seven-day offensive deeper into al-Qaeda and Taliban territory close to the Afghan border.
The bomber blew himself up at a checkpoint on a road leading to the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex at Kamra, about 30 miles from the capital, Islamabad. Two security officers and five civilians were killed, and 13 injured.
Hours later, an explosion struck a bus traveling in the Mohmand tribal region, killing 17. Also Friday, a car bomb exploded in a parking lot in Peshawar, the main city in the northwest. Fifteen people were wounded.
