Bomb Kills 37 in Pakistan's Peshawar as U.S. Drone Targets Militants

A car bomb killed at least 37 people on Sunday in Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar, officials said, the third deadly strike to hit the city in a week.

The bomb caused carnage in the busy Kissa Khwani market in the city, the gateway to tribal regions which are a stronghold of militants linked to the Taliban and al-Qaida.

"The blast killed at least 37 people," top local administration official Sahebzada Muhammad Anis told Agence France Presse.

A senior official at Peshawar's Lady Reading Hospital, Dr. Arshad Javaid, confirmed the new toll and said at least 103 people were injured.

He said the dead included two women and six children aged five to nine.

The bomb went off near a police station but officials said it did not appear to have been the target.

"It looks like the market was the target," said bomb disposal chief Shafqat Malik.

He told AFP a car parked by the roadside had apparently been converted into a remote-controlled bomb.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who is in New York for the U.N. General Assembly, strongly condemned the blast.

"Those involved in the killing of innocent people are devoid of humanity and all religions," he said in comments released by his office.

The blast caused major destruction, toppling a two-story building and gutting several shops, an AFP reporter at the scene saw.

Thick grey clouds engulfed the entire area after several shops caught fire. At least 50 shops were either damaged or completely destroyed.

Human limbs, blood, broken glass, stationery, blood-soaked clothes and sandals littered the road.

Rescuers pulled several bodies from a passenger minivan which was passing the explosives-laden vehicle when it exploded.

Officials and rescue workers were collecting body parts and bodies and putting them in ambulances for over an hour after the blast.

Also Sunday, a U.S. drone strike killed three militants in a restive Pakistani tribal region near the Afghan border, officials said.

The attack took place in the Dargamandi area, seven kilometers (four miles) north of Miranshah which is the main town in the North Waziristan tribal region.

The area is a bastion of militants linked to the Taliban and al-Qaida.

"A U.S. drone fired two missiles on a militant compound, killing three rebels," a senior security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Another local official confirmed the attack and casualties. However, an intelligence official in Miranshah put the toll at four.

The area targeted by the drone is said to be the stronghold of Afghanistan's Haqqani network, a guerrilla faction linked to the Taliban.