Taliban kill eight in car bomb attack on police chief

A Taliban suicide bomber killed at least eight people in Karachi today. The car bomb, outside the home of a senior police officer, left a crater 10 feet deep.

Crime Investigation Department officer Chaudry Aslam's role is to crack down on militants in the southern port city. He was not harmed in the attack and told local television: "This is a cowardly act. I'm not scared. I will not spare them."

Mr Aslam said that the vehicle contained at least 440lb of explosives. The victims included six policemen guarding his house and a mother and daughter.

The death toll could have been worse if the explosion had happened a few minutes later - when many children would have been on their way to schools near Mr Aslam's house in his suburb of Karachi, a wealthy residential area that rarely experiences militant attacks or the other forms of violence that plague Pakistan's biggest city.

Karachi has not seen as many militant attacks as other major cities in Pakistan but it is believed to be home to many Taliban activists who have fled army operations in the north-west near the Afghan border.

Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan said: "We will continue targeting all such officers who are involved in the killing of our comrades."