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| India-Pakistan |
| Pakistan luxury hotel bombing toll rises to 16 |
| 2009-06-11 |
| [Al Arabiya Latest] Pakistani police Wednesday scoured the charred rooms of a luxury hotel in northwest Peshawar for clues after a suicide car bomb killed 16 people in the city troubled by Taliban violence. A top provincial official said the massive blast at the Pearl Continental Hotel late Tuesday was likely the latest in a string of revenge attacks by militants over a six-week offensive against them in the northwest. Hunting for the dead, police moved from room-to-room in the five-star hotel, large parts of which were reduced to rubble when at least two attackers shot security guards and then slammed an explosives-laden truck into the building. Five more bodies were pulled from the dust and rubble early Wednesday, bringing the death toll to 16, police said, with more victims feared trapped under the debris. "The blast is a reaction to the army offensive in Swat and Malakand. The possibility of this type of terrorist attack cannot be ruled out in future," North West Frontier Province information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said. |
| Posted by:Fred |