Suicide Bomb Kills 19 at Pakistan Courthouse

A suicide bombing outside a Peshawar courthouse killed 19 people this morning in Pakistan, the latest in a series of attacks by Islamic militants reacting against an anti-Taliban army offensive in the region. Today's bombing came only hours after missiles fired from a suspected US drone killed three alleged militants in another region close to the Afghan border.

The dead in today's suicide bombing included at least three police; 51 people were reported wounded. The militant onslaught has killed at least 80 in the past two weeks. Drone strikes are highly unpopular among the strongly anti-American local population, both because they often kill civilians and because they fuel the perception that the US is behind the Pakistani army offensive.