Investigators search hotel after suicide bombing

INVESTIGATORS searched a wrecked luxury hotel in north-western Pakistan for evidence yesterday after a suicide bombing killed 11 people, including aid workers, in what the UN condemned as a “heinous terrorist attack”.

Elsewhere in the volatile region, security forces killed 70 suspected militants in an area close to two major Taliban tribal strongholds, intelligence officials said.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for late Tuesday’s bombing of the Peshawar Pearl Continental, but the blast followed Taliban threats to carry out major attacks in large cities to avenge an army offensive against insurgents in the nearby Swat Valley.