Blast near mosque in Pakistan's Peshawar

ISLAMABAD, May 15 (Reuters) Several people were wounded by an explosion near a mosque in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar today, police and witnesses said.

ARYOne television news channel reported that up to 18 people were feared dead.

''The blast took place near Masjid Mohabat Khan. Several people were wounded,'' Arshad Ali, a policeman at the scene, told Reuters, referring to a mosque in the heart of the city.

One of the many Afghan refugees living in Peshawar described the impact. ''I was in kitchen when I heard an explosion and a wall of our restaurant fell on my feet,'' said Muslim Khan, an Afghan refugee.

Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan's volatile North West Frontier Province, has suffered an overspill of violence from tribal regions on the border with Afghanistan. The Pakistan military has been fighting al Qaeda militants there, while seeking to contain pro-Taliban tribesmen.

There was a rash of bomb blasts in the city in late 2006 and early this year, as militants angry with President Pervez Musharraf's alliance with the United States sought to destablise the government by creating insecurity.

REUTERS AGL KN1444