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A suicide squad shot its way past guards and set off a massive blast outside a hotel popular with wealthy Pakistanis and foreign workers, killing at least 15 people and wounding 70.
The bombers struck the Pearl Continental Hotel in Peshawar late last night, reducing a section of the building to rubble and leaving a huge crater in the parking area.
Two UN staff were among the dead. "The hotel was housing many humanitarian workers there to provide life-saving assistance to Pakistan's most vulnerable people," said Unicef director Ann Veneman.
Three men in a pickup truck approached the hotel's main gate, opened fire at security guards, drove inside and detonated the bomb, said senior policeman Liaqat Ali. He estimated that the truck contained more than half a ton of explosives.
Taliban leaders warned last week that they would attack large cities in retaliation for an army offensive to reclaim the nearby Swat Valley from the militants.
In September last year a bomb at Islamabad's Marriott Hotel killed 50 people. Both hotels are frequented by foreigners, making them high-profile targets despite tight security.
