Twin bombings rock Pakistan Islamic university

A double suicide bombing at a university campus in Pakistan's capital on Tuesday killed up to seven people, including the two bombers, an administration official said.

"Seven people, including two suicide bombers are dead, and 29 injured in the two attacks. Among the dead is one female," a senior administration official, Rana Akbar Hayat told AFP at the scene of the attack.

Police investigators confirmed that both were suicide attacks.

The bombing of Islamabad's Islamic International University was the seventh major militant attack in just over a fortnight and the first since the military launched what officials vowed would be a knockout blow against the Taliban.

The first blast ripped through the faculty of Islamic jurisprudence used by male students and the second rocked the women's cafeteria, law student Qudrat Ullah told AFP by telephone from the scene.

"There is panic. Students are rushing to donate blood. There are a lot of police arrived inside the building," he said.

"Casualties were taken away first in private vehicles. Then ambulances arrived. I saw several people wounded."

There is panic. Students are rushing to donate blood. There are a lot of police arrived inside the building

Law student Qudrat Ullah

Suicide bombings

Altaf Hussein, a spokesman for Islamabad's main PIMS Hospital, said several of the wounded were in a serious condition.

"We have also received body parts including one severed leg that we cannot identify," he added.

Although there was no immediate claim of responsibility, Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked extremists have carried out a two-year campaign of suicide bombings and commando raids that have killed 2,250 people.

A spike in attacks since Oct. 5 which have left more than 170 people dead has underlined the scale of the insurgency that authorities are trying to halt.

The Taliban last week staged an audacious attack on army headquarters in Rawalpindi, the garrison town adjoining Islamabad, with 23 people killed and 39 hostages freed by troops.

Five U.N. World Food Program workers were also killed earlier this month when a suicide bomber walked into their office in Islamabad and blew himself up, dressed in military uniform.

Authorities believe many of the bombings and suicide attacks in Pakistan, as well as attacks in the West, are being planned in the semi-autonomous tribal area of South Waziristan where the army launched its offensive on Saturday.

Officials said at least 98 militants and 13 soldiers had been killed since the fighting erupted, and more than 110,000 civilians have now fled to tribal areas outside the war zone.

We have also received body parts including one severed leg that we cannot identify

Saif Abbasi, head of sociology department