By Mubasher Bukhari
LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) - Two suicide bombers attacked military vehicles in the Pakistani city of Lahore on Friday, killing at least 20 people, despite government assertions that crackdowns had weakened militants.
The dead included five soldiers, military officials said.
There have been five blasts this week alone, including a car bomb suicide attack on a police intelligence building in Lahore on Monday that killed 13 people, and a shooting and bombing at a U.S.-based aid agency that killed 6 in the northwest.
"There were two suicide bombers who attacked two military vehicles within the space of 15 seconds," police official Mohammad Shafiq told reporters in Lahore.
"The heads of both attackers have been found," he said.
A Reuters photographer said soldiers cordoned off the site of the blasts and were not allowing anyone to approach. Troops were also deployed on rooftops of houses. An army helicopter was flying over the area.
Rescue workers with stretchers rushed towards the blast site.
At least 50 people were wounded in the attacks in a military neighbourhood of the city which is near the border with India, hospital officials said.
Pakistani markets have mostly shrugged off violence, which has spread from militant strongholds in the northwest near the Afghan border to major cities. But Friday's blast had an impact on trading, dealers said.
"The market entered the negative zone only because of the bomb blasts in Lahore and it is likely that investors will be more cautious now, ahead of the weekend, due to security fears," said Sajid Bhanji, a dealer at brokers' Arif Habib Ltd.
However, the main KSE index later recovered and was trading 0.15 percent higher at 5:05 a.m. EST.
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi condemned the blasts in a statement, vowing "terrorism will never be allowed to succeed in its nefarious designs."
Pakistani authorities have said security crackdowns have weakened al Qaeda-linked Pakistani Taliban militants fighting to topple the U.S.-backed government.
While Taliban bases have been smashed in government offensives in the militant stronghold of South Waziristan, fighters have a history of melting away to rugged areas which are hard for the military to penetrate.
Aside from facing a stubborn insurgency at home, Pakistan is also under heavy American pressure to open a new front and go after Afghan Taliban militants in border sanctuaries, a move that would tax its stretched military.
(Additional reporting by Augustine Anthony, Zeeshan haider and Sahar Ahmed; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Robert Birsel)
