Gunmen, bomber hit 4 sites in Pakistan, 37 die

LAHORE, Pakistan – Teams of gunmen attacked three security sites Thursday in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore while a suicide bomber hit a northwestern town, killing a total of 37 people. The strikes were part of an escalating a wave of terror aimed at scuttling a planned offensive into the militant heartland on the Afghan border.

One of the attacks, on a commando training facility on Lahore’s outskirts, lasted into Thursday afternoon, before security forces killed the five attackers and freed a family they were holding hostage, police said.

The assaults paralyzed the cultural capital of this nuclear-armed U.S. ally, showing the militants are highly organized and able to carry out sophisticated, coordinated strikes against heavily fortified facilities despite stepped up security across the country.

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