18 dead in Pakistani hotel blast

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Pakistani five-star hotel destroyed by a car bomb.

ISLAMABAD, June 10 (Agencies): The death toll from a suicide attack on a five-star hotel in the northwest Pakistani city of Peshawar rose to at least 18 people Wednesday, including two UN employees, authorities said.
Three suicide attackers shot their way onto the grounds of the Pearl Continental Hotel, which is often frequented by foreigners and diplomats and set off a car bomb Tuesday night.
At least 64 were wounded, according to Qhazi Jamil, senior superintendent of Peshawar police. The dead UN employees were a Serbian national working for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and a UNICEF worker from the Philippines.
The assailants fired on security guards at the hotel's entrance gate and forced their way inside before setting off the bomb, Jamil said.
The blast inflicted severe damage on the building, which is surrounded by a security wall, and destroyed dozens of cars in the parking lot, police and witnesses said.
The bomb contained about 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds) of explosives, the chief of Peshawar's bomb-disposal squad said.
Surveillance video appeared to show a car and a truck involved in the attack, getting through the hotel's outside gate and security checkpoint with relative ease.
"They tried their best to stop the car bomb," said Jamil Kharwar, a spokesman for the hotel. "When a person has in his mind to come to die, nobody can stop him."
Peshawar is the capital of North West Frontier Province, which has suffered a spate of bombings on civilian targets in the wake of the Pakistani military's ongoing military offensive against Taliban militants.
Sajjan Gohel, an international security analyst at the Asia-Pacific Foundation in Britain, said the blast appeared to be a response to the government's offensive.
Meanwhile: Rescuers are searching for victims of a suicide bomb attack on a luxury hotel in the Pakistani city of Peshawar.
Rescue teams are picking through the rubble of the Pearl Continental Hotel recovering bodies and looking for more people trapped in the debris.
The UN says two of its employees - one from Serbia and the other from the Philippines - are among the dead. A spate of bombings has followed an army crackdown on Taliban militants.
The latest attack came as the Pakistani army stepped up its operations in the north-west with an offensive in the Bannu district bordering semi-autonomous North Waziristan.
The death toll rose to 18 with the discovery of three bodies early on Wednesday, our correspondent says. At least 60 people have been injured.
The PC is a well-known landmark in Peshawar. Often used by foreigners but also by Pakistani officials and businessmen, it is known for good Western as well as local food and 5-star service. All factors which may have contributed to its becoming a target.