Massive Car Bomb Rocks Pakistan

Suspected Taliban militants carried out a brazen assault and suicide attack on one of northeastern Pakistan's biggest cities Wednesday, leaving as many as 30 people dead and scores more injured.

Raja Riaz, a senior minister in the Punjab government, told reporters that about 30 people were killed in the car bomb blast in Lahore. An estimated 250 more people were injured in the massive explosion.

The blast mid-morning Wednesday was powerful enough to shear walls off buildings in the main business district of Lahore.

Gunfire was heard in the area after the blast, and local media reported armed men engaged in small arms fire with police in several buildings in the area, according to CBS News' Farhan Bokhari.

Alex Crawford, of CBS News partner network Sky News, reports that the blast struck in the heart of Lahore, near the border with India, and damaged a police station, an office of Pakistan's main intelligence agency and a court in the densely populated city.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility, but the suicide attack comes amid a stepped up offensive by Pakistan's military in the troubled Swat Valley, where troops have been battling Taliban militants who control much of the picturesque terrain.

Two suspects arrested after the attack Wednesday morning, "appeared to be linked" to Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, a powerful warlord based in the Waziristan region along the Afghan border, a senior Pakistani intelligence official told Bokhari.
"It is still early, but the information we have gathered suggests this is most likely a Mehsud-backed attack," the official told CBS News. The intelligence source spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to share the information.

A Pakistani government minister, also speaking to Bokhari on condition of anonymity, went even further, saying the suicide blast "is certainly linked to Baitullah Mehsud... this is the final conclusion made so far."

"We are investigating the possibility that these men were planning an attack in Islamabad and may have knowledge about the Lahore attack," the security official told Bokhari. He declined to give any further details.

Mehsud, the senior Taliban figure inside Pakistan, vowed in March to wage an attack in Washington. "Soon we will launch an attack in Washington that will amaze everyone in the world," he told The Associated Press by phone.

CBS News security correspondent Bob Orr reported about a year ago that U.S. intelligence officials were increasingly concerned that Mehsud could eclipse even Osama bin Laden as a threat to America.

The U.S. recently announced a $5 million bounty on Mehsud's head. Asked about it, he told the AP he would be happy to "embrace martyrdom."

Western diplomats told Bokhari that Wednesday's attack underlined the degree to which Pakistan remains vulnerable to reprisal attacks from Taliban militants, angered by the ongoing military operation in Swat Valley, now in its third week.

The military claims to have killed more than 1,100 militants, while losing as many as 70 of its own forces.

"The attack in Lahore tells us this situation could get much more ugly for Pakistan, especially if major cities are attacked," a senior Western diplomat in Islamabad told CBS News. "It seemed the Taliban militants were increasingly cornered in Swat, but now there is a danger of repercussions," said the diplomat.