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12 killed in hotel blast in Pakistan

Xinhua, August 26, 2011

• At least 12 people including two soldiers were killed and 17 others injured in a blast that hit a hotel in Pakistan's northwest city of Nowshera on Thursday night, reported local Urdu TV channel Samaa.

  The injured people included six soldiers who were eating inside the hotel when the blast went off, said the local media reports, adding that the injured soldiers were in critical condition.

  The blast also partially damaged the hotel as well as the buildings and vehicles nearby, said the reports.

  It was a remote control bomb fixed to a bicycle parking outside the hotel near a market, said local police. The bomb contained an estimated eight kilograms of explosives, said bomb disposal experts.

  The blast took place at about 8:30 p.m. local time Thursday when people were breaking the fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan at a hotel in the downtown area of Nowshera, a city located some 50 kilometers east of Peshawar, the largest city in Pakistan's northwest.

  Many people including some soldiers were having dinner inside the hotel when the explosion occurred, said eyewitnesses.

  No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

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