The Pakistani Taliban Strike Again

49 killed in Taliban attack on Peshawar
Hitting back to avenge the recent killings of some of its leaders and consistent US drone attacks, the Taliban on Friday exploded a car bomb in a crowded Peshawar marketplace, killing at least 49 innocent civilians and injuring more than 100.

Reacting to the deadliest attack since March when 50 people were killed in a mosque blast in the northwestern town of Jamrud, the government said it would launch a massive operation to wipe out the Taliban from South Waziristan, along the Afghan border.

On Friday, a suicide bomber drove a vehicle, packed with about 50 kg of explosives, next to a passenger bus at Khyber Bazaar and detonated it, senior police officer Shafqat Malik said. All the victims were civilians and a number of them were women and children, Pakistani commandos stormed a building near army headquarters on Sunday and freed 22 hostages being held there by suspected Taliban militants, a military spokesman said.

Pakistan commandos rescue 22 hostages
Pakistani commandos stormed a building near army headquarters on Sunday and freed 22 hostages being held there by suspected Taliban militants. Three hostages and four of the gunmen were killed, said the spokesman, Major General Athar Abbas.

"They were in a room with a terrorist who was wearing a suicide jacket but the commandos acted promptly and gunned him down before he could pull the trigger," Abbas said. "Three of the hostages were killed due to militant firing," he said. Soldiers were searching for other gunmen in the building, he said, adding there were believed to have been more than five of them in the building.

Saturday's brazen attack on the tightly guarded headquarters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi came as the military prepared a major offensive against the militants in their northwestern stronghold of South Waziristan on the Afghan border. Malik added. The charred skeleton of a bus flipped on its side in the middle of the road, while the remains of a twisted motorbike lay nearby, eyewitnesses said.