Car bombs kill 1, wound 26 in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - A police officer was killed and at least 26 people wounded yesterday when two car bombs detonated within 25 minutes and a dozen feet of each other in the southern port city of Karachi, police officials said.

The explosions came days after six men accused of being part of a banned militant group were arrested in the city. And the location of the blasts, at the gate of an English-language training school, prompted officials to say that the attackers could have been lashing out at Pakistan's aligning with the United States to fight terrorism.

Witnesses said the first bomb exploded just after 5 p.m. outside the main gate of the Pakistan-American Cultural Center, a private language school not affiliated with the U.S. government, in an upscale neighborhood of Karachi.

Minutes later, a more powerful bomb exploded 10 feet away in a car bearing an official license plate.

The second explosion caused the casualties, created a 10-foot- wide crater and damaged a wall around the school. The wounded included four police officials and 10 journalists.