Suicide blast in Pakistan kills four

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- An explosion near a bus carrying army personnel killed four people in Pakistan on Monday, police told CNN.

The explosion happened close to a market and near the military's general headquarters in Rawalpindi, said Bustan Khan, assistant sub-inspector of the Rawalpindi police. The attack occurred about 7:30 a.m. Monday (2:30 a.m. GMT).

The bus was destroyed and as many as 20 people were wounded in the explosion, acccording to the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan.

The blast occurred on a road running through a bazaar near the offices of the army's engineering department, police official Abdul Waheed told the Associated Press.

It was not immediately clear which branch of the armed forces the passengers were from. Police said the army had cordoned off the area.

In recent months there have been a series of suicide bombings in Rawalpindi, a city where the army has its headquarters about seven miles (10 km) from the capital Islamabad. President Pervez Musharraf also stays in the city.

On December 27, opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and about 20 others died in a gun and bomb attack in Rawalpindi.

Before that, a series of attacks hit security forces and employees of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency, including two suicide bombings against a bus of ISI employees and an army checkpoint on November 24 that killed up to 35 people.

There have been no claims of responsibility for the attacks, but authorities have blamed Taliban militants based near the Afghan border who pose a growing security threat across Pakistan. E-mail to a friend

Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.