Latest blast kills 35 in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- At least 35 people were killed Monday in a bombing near Pakistan's military headquarters in Rawalpindi, with army personnel among the victims.

The suicide blast by Islamic extremists at a small shopping center seemed aimed at a line of people who were waiting to withdraw their salaries from a bank branch on the ground floor. Soldiers were in the line.

A ferocious wave of terrorist attacks has hit Pakistan, apparently in retaliation for the launch last month of a military offensive in the South Waziristan region, in the tribal area along the Afghan border. The region is the base of the country's Taliban movement, which is behind most of the bloodshed. More than 300 people have been killed in the attacks since the beginning of October.

In Rawalpindi, bodies of the dead and wounded were strewn across the parking lot and the road in front of the shopping center Monday, women and children among them, witnesses said. Some 65 people were wounded.

The explosion was a few hundred yards from the military headquarters complex, and the bank may have been the nearest for army personnel to use. The Ministry of Defense is also nearby. Given that it was the first workday of the month, many people would have just had their wages and pensions paid into their accounts. The capital, Islamabad, is a 25-minute drive away.

Four soldiers were killed in the attack, and nine were wounded, according to the army's chief spokesman, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas.