Five dead at Pakistan army base

A suicide bomber on a bicycle killed five people as he blew himself up outside an army base checkpoint in north-west Pakistan.

Two soldiers and three civilians died, in addition to the bomber.

The attack, which left six injured, happened at the gates of an army services centre in Nowshehra, 120km (75 miles) north-west of Islamabad.

The blast comes hours before President Pervez Musharraf is due to lift the state of the emergency in the country.

He is to address the nation on TV and radio on Saturday evening, with elections due to be held on 8 January.

Frequent targets

Police said some of those injured in the army base bombing were in a critical condition.

Pakistan has seen a series of suicide attacks in the unstable area near the border with Afghanistan.

Five children were killed on Monday in an attack near another military base at Kamra, and the previous day six people were killed at a checkpoint in Swat.

And on Thursday eight died in Quetta, in a double attack on military checkpoints.

The army has been frequently targeted in suicide attacks since July, when President Musharraf ordered troops to raid the radical Red Mosque in Islamabad that had been occupied by militants.