In both Bannu and Peshawar, security personnel are believed to have been the attackers' target [AFP]

The first attack on Saturday morning targeted a police station in the district of Bannu.

The toll is expected to rise as several buildings collapsed from the force of the blast, according to police on Saturday.

Muhammad Farid, the police deputy superintendent, confirmed that 40 people were injured, including 24 policemen, after the attacker drove his explosive-laden car into their building in the Mardan area on the outskirts of Bannu town.

Bannu is the gateway to North Waziristan - a tribal region on the Afghan border believed to contain al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters.

Civilians were also caught in the blast.

The group has threatened to unleash bigger attacks on government targets to avenge the killing of Baitullah Mehsud, their leader, in a US drone attack.

Second attack

In Saturday's second attack, a car bomb went off in a commercial district in the main northwestern city of Peshawar, the capital of NWFP, killing four people and wounding dozens more.

Confirming the death toll, Shaukat Khan, a local police officer, explained that an attacker detonated the device outside a bank affiliated with the army in Peshawar.

The car bombing came less than 24 hours after a US unmanned drone aircraft killed 12 suspected Afghan fighters, according to Pakistani intelligence officials.

The missile attack took place on Thursday in Dandy Darpa Khel village, near the town of Mir Ali, adjoining North Waziristan.

"All those killed were Afghans; men who had come from Logar," a villager said referring to an Afghan province south of the capital, Kabul.

Pakistan has officially condemned US drone attacks, saying they violate the country's sovereignty.

Recommend this article...

Did you enjoy this article? Please bookmark it onto: