11 dead in truck bomb blast at Pearl Continental hotel, Peshawar
From correspondents in Peshawar
Agence France-PresseJune 10, 2009 08:26am

-11 dead, 46 hurt in truck bomb blast
-Target was five-star hotel used by foreigners
-Taliban may have acted out of "revenge"

TWO foreigners were among 11 people killed overnight when a suicide truck bomb hit a luxury hotel in the northwest Pakistani city of Peshawar.

"There are two foreigners among the dead," provincial information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said, but he would not reveal the nationalities.

At least another 46 people were wounded.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said the Australian high commission was checking to see if Australians had been hurt, but it was unlikely "on the basis of information we have".

"It's a terrible attack. We obviously condemn it," he said.

The massive bomb was hidden in a delivery truck, police and officials said, and was driven up to the five-star Pearl Continental hotel in the high-security Khyber Road area of Peshawar and detonated outside, causing massive devastation.

Revenge

It is the seventh deadly bombing to hit the troubled city in a month, as fears grow that Taliban militants are exacting revenge for a punishing six-week military offensive against them in three northwest districts.

"Eleven people have been killed," provincial police chief Malik Naveed said.

"The toll is likely to rise."

City police chief Sefwat Ghayur confirmed it was a suicide blast.

"Occupants of a double-cabin pick-up truck forced their way in, firing at the security guards. The attackers struck their vehicle into the hotel building, and it exploded on impact," he said.

Hospital officials said foreign nationals were among the wounded.

"We have received 46 injured people including five foreigners," doctor Mohammad Rehan said at the main government hospital in Peshawar.

Senior police official Abdul Ghafoor Afridi said: "It was a bomb brought in a vehicle in the garb of hotel supplies."

Witnesses and a security official said they heard gunfire before the blast.

An AFP reporter at the scene said a deep crater was visible outside the four-story hotel, with smoke billowing around the damaged building and rescue workers rushing the wounded to safety.

"More than 500kg of explosive material was used in the blast," senior police official Shafqat Malik said.

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