TIMELINE: Pakistan suffers bloodiest militant attack in 2 years

(Reuters) - Pakistan suffered its worst militant attack in two years on Wednesday when a car bomb killed more than 80 people in a crowded market in the city of Peshawar.

The blast, which pushed the year's total for deaths in militant attacks close to 500, came several hours after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in the country, pledging a fresh start in relations.

Following is a timeline of major attacks this year:

February 5, 2009 - At least 24 people are killed in a suicide bombing near a Shi'ite mosque in Dera Ghazi Khan, central Pakistan.

February 20 - Suicide bomber kills 27 people and wounds 65 in an attack on a funeral procession for a Shi'ite Muslim killed a day earlier in Dera Ismail Khan town.

March 3 - Gunmen attack a bus carrying Sri Lanka's cricket team outside a Lahore stadium, killing seven people, including six policemen and a driver, and wounding six of the cricketers and a British coach.

March 27 - A suicide bomber kills 37 people in a crowded mosque near the Afghan border.

March 30 - Militants armed with guns and grenades storm a police training center in Lahore killing eight recruits, wounding scores and holding off police and troops for eight hours. The attack is claimed by Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud. Four militants are killed and three arrested.

April 5 - A suicide bomber blows himself up in a religious center for minority Shi'ite Muslims in Chakwal in central Pakistan, killing 22 people.

April 18 - A suicide car-bomber rams a military convoy, killing 25 soldiers and police and two passers-by near Kohat, 190 km (120 miles) west of Islamabad.

May 27 - Gunmen attack a police headquarters in the Pakistani city of Lahore, setting off a car-bomb that killed at least 24 people.

June 5 - A bomb blast kills around 40 worshippers attending Friday prayers at a mosque in a remote area of northwest Pakistan.

June 9 - Militants attack the Pearl Continental Hotel, which is popular with foreigners, in Peshawar with guns and a truck bomb killing seven people including a U.N. worker.

Aug 27 - A suicide bomber kills 22 Pakistani border guards in an attack at the main crossing point into Afghanistan.

Sept 2 - Unidentified gunmen shoot and wound Pakistan's religious affairs minister, Hamid Saeed Kazmi, in a brazen attack in the capital that killed his driver.

Sept 18 - A suicide car-bomber kills 33 people on a main road near the city of Kohat in northwest Pakistan.

Oct 5 - A suicide bomber dressed as a paramilitary soldier attacks an office of the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) in the Islamabad, killing five staff.

Oct 9 - A suspected suicide car-bomber kills 49 people in the city of Peshawar. About 100 people are wounded.

Oct 10 - Gunmen in army uniforms attack Pakistani army's headquarters in Rawalpindi. The next day Pakistani commandos storm the building and rescue 39 hostages. Nine militants, three hostages and 11 soldiers are killed.

Oct 12 - A suicide bomber hits a military vehicle in Shangla district, near the Swat valley. Forty-one people are killed, including 35 civilians and 6 soldiers, and 45 wounded.

Oct 15 - Militants launch a string of attacks in Lahore, capital of Punjab province, Peshawar and Kohat in the northwest killing at least 31 people.

Oct 28 - More than 80 people are killed and around 100 injured when a bomb explodes in the busy Peepal Mandi market street in Peshawar's old city.

Source: Reuters