ISLAMABAD: A suicide blast killed the Pakistani military's top medical officer and seven others yesterday, as key US "war on terror" ally President Pervez Musharraf rejected fresh pressure to step down.
Officials earlier said the bomber was in a car but a military spokesman later said he was on foot.
Lieutenant General Mushtaq Baig, the army's surgeon general, was the highest ranking officer to be killed in an attack since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
The general, his driver and guard were killed along with five civilians, while 25 people were wounded.
The military, meanwhile, vowed to continue its offensive in Swat valley until all militants are cleared.
In other violent incidents, three Pakistani soldiers were killed and four wounded in a bomb in the southwestern province of Baluchistan.
In Peshawar, gunmen opened fire and hurled grenades at the office of a British-run aid group, killing four people and wounding 10 others.
Pakistan has been on edge since the December 27 assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto in Rawalpindi.
Her party won the most seats in the polls, but Musharraf's spokesman has dismissed fresh pressure at home and abroad for the embattled leader to step down after the defeat of his allies.
A US senator who monitored the polls one week ago said Musharraf should be given a "graceful way to move", while former premier Nawaz Sharif said the sooner the president stepped down, the better.
"Except for Nawaz Sharif it is clear that no one else is talking about the president leaving," Musharraf's spokesman said.
Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N formed a coalition with Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party last week.
They are seeking further allies to get them the two-thirds majority in parliament with which they could theoretically impeach the president.
"Musharraf should quit as soon as possible. It would be better for him because the people have given their mandate," Sharif said after meeting a hardline Islamist party leader.
Joe Biden, one of three US senators who observed the elections, was asked by ABC television if he thought it would be good for Musharraf to prepare an exit strategy to avoid being forced out by a hostile parliament, he said: "Probably".
Musharraf's spokesman rejected Biden's comments and said the president was ready to work with the new government.
Britain's Sunday Telegraph cited an anonymous aide as saying that Musharraf was readying such a strategy after Bhutto's and Sharif's parties won the elections.
l Norway's embassy in Islamabad has increased security measures after receiving an unspecified threat over the weekend.
"We have taken several extra security measures after receiving a threat over the weekend while the embassy was closed," a Norwegian foreign ministry spokeswoman said.
