Pakistan, Sept. 20 -- Twenty-three people, including 17 policemen and six civilians, were dead by Saturday after militants rammed an explosives-laden vehicle near a mosque in Kohat's old Police Lines during Friday prayers and then stormed the compound. More than 100 people were wounded. By the time an overnight clearance operation ended, police and security forces had killed eight attackers. The Hafiz Gul Bahadur-led Ittehadul Mujahideen claimed responsibility.

The choice of target left little room for ambiguity. This was an assault on the institutions holding Pakistan's western security front together. Police personnel, the Counter-Terrorism Department and Special Branch were all caught in an attack designed not simply to kill, but to p...