Bomb rips through bus; at least 10 killed

KARACHI, Pakistan -- A bomb ripped through a bus Wednesday killing at least 10 people, all believed to be foreigners heading to their hotel from the airport, police said.

Another 20 people were injured when the powerful bomb shattered the bus, they said. It's believed that many of the passengers were Germans.

The explosion occurred in a posh southern neighborhood of Karachi where many of the international hotels are located. The bus had neared the hotel when the explosion occurred.

Sirens blared and ambulances struggled to weave through the congested traffic to reach the injured, said witnesses.

Western foreigners in Pakistan have been warned to use caution because of threats from militant Islamic groups angry about President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's support for the U.S.-led coalition's war on terror in neighboring Afghanistan.

These radical groups were strong supporters of the Taliban regime that collapsed under the coalition's assault.

Musharraf banned five extremist Muslim groups in January and two months later, grenade-hurling terrorists killed five worshippers in an Islamabad church attended by members of the foreign community. Two of the dead were Americans.

Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped in southern Karachi in January and killed by Islamic militants protesting the detention of Taliban and al-Qaida in Guantanamo, Cuba. Four men accused of the killing are currently on trial in the Sindh city of Hyderabad, barely 60 miles north of Karachi.