Bladerunner
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- Dec 19, 2008
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A suicide bomb attack on a luxury hotel in the north-west Pakistani city of Peshawar, has killed 11 people and injured at least 70. Gunmen stormed the outer security barrier at the Pearl Continental Hotel before blowing up a vehicle containing, police say, 500kg of explosives.
One foreign citizen - a UN employee - was killed and several were injured.
A series of bombs have hit cities including Peshawar since a government crackdown on Taliban militants.
Peshawar, the main city in the country's north-west, is not far from the Swat valley, where the government offensive has been concentrated.
Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani swiftly condemned the attack but the blast hardly comes as a surprise, says the BBC's Chris Morris, in Islamabad.
While there was no immediate claim of responsibility for Tuesday night's attack on what is the most prominent hotel in Peshawar, our correspondent says most people will assume it to be the work of the Taliban.
A symbol of Peshawar's contact with the rest of the world, a place where government officials and foreign dignitaries are accustomed to staying, has been attacked, he adds.
The attack killed a Serbian UN refugee agency worker and the injured include a British man and a German national, Peshawar district coordination officer Sahibzada Anis said.
At least a dozen UN employees were staying at the hotel at the time of the explosion.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon spoke of "a heinous terrorist attack which no cause can justify".
source:bbc
One foreign citizen - a UN employee - was killed and several were injured.
A series of bombs have hit cities including Peshawar since a government crackdown on Taliban militants.
Peshawar, the main city in the country's north-west, is not far from the Swat valley, where the government offensive has been concentrated.
Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani swiftly condemned the attack but the blast hardly comes as a surprise, says the BBC's Chris Morris, in Islamabad.
While there was no immediate claim of responsibility for Tuesday night's attack on what is the most prominent hotel in Peshawar, our correspondent says most people will assume it to be the work of the Taliban.
A symbol of Peshawar's contact with the rest of the world, a place where government officials and foreign dignitaries are accustomed to staying, has been attacked, he adds.
The attack killed a Serbian UN refugee agency worker and the injured include a British man and a German national, Peshawar district coordination officer Sahibzada Anis said.
At least a dozen UN employees were staying at the hotel at the time of the explosion.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon spoke of "a heinous terrorist attack which no cause can justify".
source:bbc
