http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/05/world/asia/05pstan.html

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Attackers lobbed grenades and opened fire on worshipers, mostly active and retired military officials, at a mosque in the garrison city of Rawalpindi during Friday Prayer, striking a further blow against the military establishment as the army pursues militants in the lawless tribal regions along the border with Afghanistan.

Those killed in an attack on a mosque in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, on Friday were brought to a hospital compound in the city, a center for the nation's military.

Soldiers scrambled to secure the area after the attack on the mosque, where many active and retired officers worship.

At least 36 people — including high-ranking military officials — were reported to have been killed and more than 45 wounded, the military said. At least one of the attackers was a suicide bomber, it said.

Officials said those killed in the attack included a major general, a brigadier and two lieutenant colonels. The wounded included Gen. Muhammad Yousaf and other officers.

General Yousaf served as the deputy head of the army under Pervez Musharraf, the former president. Hospital officials said he was in stable condition.

The attack stunned Pakistan for its brazenness and the ease with which the attackers had breached what should have been a secure area. Only military officers and others who had been screened by the intelligence services were supposedly allowed in the mosque, a witness said.

The attack, the latest in a series of such assaults, left many Pakistanis asking how militants could penetrate what were supposed to be well-guarded buildings to strike with impunity and bring the fight from the tribal areas to the heart of official power.

At least six attackers took part in the assault on the mosque, used primarily by active and retired officers and supposedly accessible only with security clearances, according to Lt. Col. Baseer Haider, a military spokesman.

“It is confirmed that at least one of the attackers blew himself up,” Colonel Haider said. “Four attackers were killed in the ensuing gun battle with the security forces.”

A witness, Nasir Ali, said he saw two assailants clad in long white tunics girded with ammunition belts entering the mosque from either side and opening fire on worshipers. The attackers also threw grenades into the women’s section of the mosque, he said.

“I could only hear the shouting of the people. We couldn’t help each other at all,” Mr. Ali told Dawn television. “It was a hopeless situation. About 30 or 35 people were lying dead in front of me.”

Rescue officials said the death toll could climb to about 40.

As the latest army campaign has unfolded in South Waziristan, militants have increasingly struck at the military.

The daylight attack took place at a mosque in the Qasim Market neighborhood of Rawalpindi. The mosque can accommodate at least 200 people, but it was not clear how many were present when the attack took place. Pakistani news reports suggested that the attackers had clambered over a rear wall to enter the grounds.

Mr. Ali’s father, identified by Dawn television as Ameer Ali, a retired army official, said the mosque was used mainly by army officers living nearby, although retired personnel could worship there if they were cleared by the intelligence services.

The attack left the walls and floor of the mosque spattered with blood, witnesses said.

Rawalpindi, the headquarters of the Pakistani Army, has been a frequent target of militants in recent months as a government offensive against Taliban insurgents continues in a northwestern tribal region, South Waziristan.

The attack recalled an assault on Oct. 10 when at least 10 armed militants raided the General Headquarters complex of the Pakistani Army in Rawalpindi and held dozens of hostages for 20 hours until a commando operation ended the siege. Three hostages and four militants were killed.

On Wednesday, a teenage suicide bomber detonated his explosives at the entrance of the naval complex in neighboring Islamabad, killing two naval officials and wounding 11 people.

At a news conference Friday evening in Islamabad, Rehman Malik, the interior minister, condemned the latest attack, calling the assailants “hired assassins.”

“They have taken the lives of innocent worshipers,” he said. “Does Islam teach the killing of innocent people?”

Salman Masood reported from Islamabad, and Alan Cowell from Paris.

A version of this article appeared in print on December 5, 2009, on page A5 of the New York edition.