The Taliban's New Bombing Campaign....

Can the Pakistani military sustain their offensive????

Two bombs exploded in a market in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar on Thursday, killing six people, and gunmen on rooftops ambushed police as they arrived at the scene.

Militant violence in nuclear-armed Pakistan, an important U.S. ally, has surged since mid-2007, with attacks on the security forces, as well as on government and Western targets, and the Taliban threatened more on Thursday.

Pakistan is vital for U.S. plans to defeat al Qaeda and cut support for the Afghan Taliban and the United States has been heartened by a military offensive against the Taliban in their Swat bastion, northwest of Islamabad.

But there have been eight militant attacks since the army began battling militants in the region in April and there is a danger the violence could erode public support for the campaign.

A short while after the bombs went off in Peshawar, a suicide bomber attacked a paramilitary post in another part of the city, killing three soldiers, a hospital official said. A wounded soldier said earlier five comrades had been killed.

The attacks came hours after the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for a suicide car-bomb and gun attack in the city of Lahore on Wednesday that killed 24 people, saying it was revenge for the Swat offensive.

"We were looking for this target for a long time," Hakimullah Mehsud, a commander loyal to Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, said by telephone.

In Peshawar, the two bombs were planted on motorbikes in the Storytellers Bazaar in the old city and caused extensive damage. Six people were killed and about 70 wounded, provincial government minister Bashir Ahmed Bilour told Reuters.

Soon afterwards, gunmen on rooftops began firing at police in lanes below. Television showed policemen firing back while colleagues strapped on bullet-proof vests. Police later said two gunmen had been killed and two suspects detained.

Shortly after the suicide bomber attacked the paramilitary post, a bomb went off in the northwestern town of Dera Ismail Khan, killing four people and wounding six, police said.