Bomb hits Pakistan navy bus, 2 dead

(Associated Press) - KARACHI, Pakistan — A roadside bomb tore through a bus taking Pakistani navy employees to work in Karachi on Thursday, killing two people in the third such attack in the country's largest city this week, authorities said.

The attack showed the strength and reach of Islamist extremist networks in Pakistan, and came less than a week after the country's army chief publicly claimed that the "backbone" of the militants had been broken.

Eleven people were also wounded in the bombing, navy spokesman Salman Ali said. The identities of the dead were not released.

On Tuesday, four people were killed in twin blasts against navy buses in the city.

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for those strikes, and warned of more unless the army stopped its campaigns against their heartlands in the northwest close to the Afghan border.

Karachi is home to 18 million people and is the economic heart of Pakistan. It is far from the northwest, but has not been spared the Islamist violence wracking the country over the last four years.

The Pakistan navy is based in the city, which is on the Arabian Sea.