Twin suicide attacks rock Afghanistan

Twin blasts: Two suicide bombings in Afghanistan targeting government facilities on Tuesday killed at least 22 people and wounded two-dozen more (CNN, Reuters, AP, Tel, AFP, WSJ, Post, NYT, AJE). Suicide bombers in an SUV killed 14 people in the first attack on a provincial official’s office in western Herat Province, and three suicide attackers on foot killed eight police officers when they attacked the office of a district police chief in southern Helmand Province.

NATO spokesman Brig. Gen. Carsten Jacobsen told Reuters Tuesday that the coalition has yet to see signs of a Taliban spring offensive like the one last year, which the insurgent group termed "Operation Badr" (Reuters). The traditional summer fighting season is expected to begin in the next few weeks, and NATO forces are bracing for the Taliban’s possible stepped-up attacks.

Armed men on a motorcycle opened fire on a shoe shop in Quetta on Monday, killing six Shi’a Muslims and wounding three others in an apparent sectarian attack (AP, ET, Dawn, DT). McClatchy’s Tom Hussain reports on the weapons smuggling networks that are purportedly bringing guns stolen from NATO armories in Afghanistan to militant groups in Pakistan, including Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which has claimed responsibility for some of Balochistan’s worst sectarian attacks (McClatchy).

Rescue efforts continued Tuesday on Siachen Glacier for 135 Pakistanis buried by an avalanche in the contested region of northern Kashmir on Saturday (AFP, ET). The deadly avalanche highlighted what some see as a senseless and expensive dispute between two countries that are wracked by poverty, over an uninhabitable icy mountain (AP).

The Times’ Declan Walsh tells the story of Fakhra Younas, the Pakistani woman who committed suicide in Rome last month, 12 years after an acid attack she blames on her ex-husband left her permanently disfigured (NYT).

Attendees of Fashion Pakistan Week’s first day got more of a show than they bargained for on Sunday, as ever-provocative model Mathira’s top fell down during her first strut (ET). The incident set off a storm of tweets that made Mathira a top trend on Twitter in Pakistan.

— Jennifer Rowland