Attack on Pakistan Quds day rally kills 25

 Al-Arabiya

Quetta, PAKISTAN (Al Arabiya, Reuters)

A blast ripped through a rally in the Pakistani city of Quetta on Friday, killing at least 25 people and wounding 80 others, the second major attack this week, piling pressure on the civilian government struggling with a flood crisis.

The attack on the Shiite rally called to express solidarity with the Palestinian people came as the United States said that Pakistan's devastating floods are likely to delay army offensives against Taliban insurgents.

" Unfortunately the flooding in Pakistan is probably going to delay any operations by the Pakistani army in North Waziristan for some period of time "

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates "Unfortunately the flooding in Pakistan is probably going to delay any operations by the Pakistani army in North Waziristan for some period of time," U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in Afghanistan where he is visiting U.S. troops.

The attack in Quetta was the second this week on Pakistani Shiites, who by some estimates comprise about 20 percent of the population in the mostly Sunni Muslim country, although figures are imprecise and disputed.

A triple suicide attack Wednesday night killed 35 people at a Shiite ceremony in the eastern city of Lahore.

That attack, and a host of other assaults on religious minorities, was claimed by the hardline Sunni Pakistani Taliban, which is seeking to overthrow a Western-backed government shaken most recently by flooding that has caused massive displacement, suffering and economic damage.

Military and law-enforcement officials also have been battered by militant violence, particularly along the border with Afghanistan. Officials said a roadside bomb attack in the capital of the northwest's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province Friday killed one police officer and wounded three others.

The renewed violence suggests the Taliban are trying to hit the government as it struggles to cope with the floods, which have made millions homeless, destroyed infrastructure and crops and hammered the economy.

Islamist charities, some of them linked to militant groups, have at the same time joined in the relief effort for the millions affected by the worst floods in the nation's history.

U.S. officials are concerned that the involvement of hardline groups in flood relief will undermine the fight against militancy in Pakistan as well Afghanistan.