A suicide bomber riding a bicycle today struck a security checkpoint near a strategic military complex reportedly linked to Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme at Kamra near Islamabad, killing eight, injuring 15, and raising fresh concerns over the security of the country’s nukes.

The early-morning attack was the first of three terror strikes that left a total 26 people dead in apparent reprisals against the Pakistani Army’s continuing campaign in the Taliban strongholds of Waziristan.

Eighteen people died after a landmine went off under a bus ferrying a marriage party in Lakaro subdivision in the restive Mohmand tribal region. In Peshawar, suspected Taliban militants detonated a car bomb outside a popular restaurant, leaving at least 15 injured.

The bicycle bomber — who had packed 5 kg of explosives and pellets in his suicide jacket — blew himself up after he was stopped at the first checkpoint outside the maximum security Pakistan Aeronautical Complex within the military cantonment in Kamra, 50 km from Islamabad, police said. Two air force guards were among the dead, Attock district police chief Fakhar Sultan said.

Kamra is the Pakistan Air Force’s largest maintenance and research base, reportedly housing combat jets equipped to carry nuclear warheads. The US intelligence think tank Stratfor said this was the second attack on the base — the first having come two years ago in December 2007. A little over two weeks ago, the Taliban had stormed the army’s General Headquarters in the garrison town of Rawalpindi nearby, killing 22.

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