Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Islamic militants attacked key police facilities in two Pakistani cities, killing at least 28 people in their latest strikes on security forces as the army prepares an offensive against a Taliban stronghold.

Insurgents firing automatic rifles and carrying grenades stormed the headquarters of the Federal Investigation Agency and two police training centers in Lahore, said Rana Sanaullah, spokesman for the Punjab provincial government, killing 15 security officials and civilians. Nine militants were also killed by security forces or detonated explosives vests, police said.

In the northwestern city of Kohat, 11 people died in a suicide car bombing, including at least three police, GEO TV said. Many people were injured in an explosion in the southwestern city of Quetta, GEO said. Terrorists attacked Pakistan paramilitary forces in the city with hand grenades and automatic rifle fire killing one and injuring six others, the Edhi ambulance service said. The militants escaped, Edhi spokesman Javed Iqbal said.

Pakistan’s Taliban movement claimed responsibility for the Lahore attack in a phone call to GEO. Five major terrorist strikes in the past week have now left at least 130 people dead. One child was killed and nine people were injured today by a remote-controlled bomb in a building housing government officers in the northwestern city of Peshawar, Edhi said.

Taliban spokesmen have said recent attacks were revenge for the August killing of their top commander, Baitullah Mehsud, by a U.S. missile. The spate of violence comes as the government and military prepare an assault on the group’s South Waziristan encampments near the Afghan border.

Coordinated Groups

“The organized attacks are an indication that all terrorist groups are coordinating,” said Zafar Nawaz Jaspal, assistant professor of international relations at Islamabad’s Quaid-e-Azam University. “They are trying to force the government not to launch the South Waziristan operation. It is a test of the government’s resolve now.”

Television channels showed troops being deployed in Lahore and exchanging fire with militants. City police spokesman Pervez Rathore said at least four militants detonated explosives vests they were wearing when surrounded by police.

The Federal Investigation Agency, a counter-terrorism force similar to the U.S. FBI, was cleared of militants by late morning, Sanaullah said. A suicide car bomber attacked the agency’s Lahore headquarters in March 2008, killing 18 people.

Rifle-wielding guerrillas, some dressed in police uniforms according to eyewitnesses, attacked the region’s main police training center, in Manawan, on the eastern outskirts of Lahore, Pakistani news channels reported. Another team of gunmen attacked a second training facility, for elite police, on Bedian Road.

Punjab Militants

Pakistan warplanes have been striking militant hideouts in South Waziristan, a mountainous tribal region, following the earlier bombings. These included an unprecedented raid on the army’s headquarters in Rawalpindi that killed 22 people, including 9 terrorists who had taken 45 people hostage. The government says the bombings are plotted in Waziristan and the army chief will decide when to launch the offensive there.

Pakistan warplanes bombed suspected Taliban targets in South Waziristan today, killing 27 people, Agence France-Presse said. It wasn’t clear how many were militants, AFP reported, citing security officials.

Capital of Punjab

Lahore is Pakistan’s second biggest city and the capital of Punjab. It lies 275 kilometers (170 miles) southeast of the capital, Islamabad. While the Taliban movement is dominated by ethnic Pashtuns from the mountains of western Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan, militants from Punjab have played a leading role in recent attacks.

Last week’s assault on the army headquarters was planned by Punjabi groups, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Jaish-e-Muhammad, according to provincial police officers cited before the attack by the News, a Pakistani newspaper. The leader of that raid, Muhammad Aqeel, is a Punjabi former army medic who also helped conduct the assault on the bus of the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore in March, army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said.

Lashkar-e-Taiba, a guerrilla group based in a Lahore suburb, conducted last November’s terrorist assault on Mumbai, according to the Indian and U.S. governments.

Since Baitullah Mehsud’s death, Hakimullah Mehsud, a close associate, has led the group, according to media reports. While several Taliban networks use Waziristan as a base to attack U.S.-led forces in neighboring Afghanistan, the group targeted by the army has focused its violence in Pakistan.

To contact the reporters on this story: Khalid Qayum in Islamabad at kqayum@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 15, 2009 12:30 EDT