14 killed in Pakistan market blasts

The attacks, in Peshawar and Dera Ismail Khan, happened within two hours of each other and a day after an assault on security forces in the eastern city of Lahore killed around 30 people.

That strike was claimed by the Pakistani Taliban, which warned of further attacks unless the Pakistan government called off the Swat offensive.

Bombs mounted on motorcycles tore off walls and shattered windows of a row of small shops in Peshawar's Qissa Khawani bazaar.

Senior police officer Zarman Shah Khan said at least six people were killed. A doctor at a nearby hospital, Sahib Gul, said 80 people wounded in the blast had been brought in, many with critical injuries.

"It was a sudden blast and then there was fire all around, a cloud of smoke filled the sky," said Khair Uddin, a shopkeeper.

Commando units rushed to the scene and engaged in a gunfight with suspected militants who holed up in a building near the market, local police Chief Malik Naveed said. Two gunmen were shot dead and at least one other was arrested.

As the gunfight was under way, a suspected suicide bomber blew up a police checkpoint on the outskirts of the city, killing four police, said police officer Yaseen Khan.

Hakimullah Mehsud, a deputy to Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, said that Wednesday's attack in Lahore was in response to the military's ongoing offensive against militants in the north-eastern Swat Valley.

He warned of further attacks in the major cities of Multan, Rawalpindi, Lahore and the capital, Islamabad, and urged civilians to flee.