Car bomb on busy Peshawar street and suspected drone kill 21 people

Peshawar: A car packed with mortar bombs blew up on a busy street in the Pakistani city of Peshawar yesterday, killing 11 people hours after a suspected US drone aircraft fired missiles at militants in another region and killed 10.

The violence came as the Pakistani military battled Taliban militants in a northwestern valley in an offensive that has forced more than 900,000 people from their homes.

The blast in Peshawar blew up a passing school bus and city police chief Sifwat Ghayyur said four children and two women were among the dead.

"It was a remote controlled bomb," Ghayyur said.

Militant violence in nuclear-armed Pakistan has surged over the past two years, raising fears for its stability.

The insecurity has also alarmed the United States which needs Pakistani action to help defeat Al Qaida and bring stability to neighbouring Afghanistan.

The army launched an offensive in the Swat valley, northwest of Islamabad, last week to stop the spread of Taliban influence.

More than 900,000 have fled from the former tourist valley and the United Nations has warned of a humanitarian tragedy unless Pakistan gets massive help.

There was no claim of responsibility for the blast but government officials have warned of the danger of militant bomb attacks in response to the offensive against the Taliban in their Swat bastion.

The attack in Swat was launched after the collapse of a peace pact that the United States had criticised as tantamount to "abdicating" to the militants.

Earlier, a suspected US drone aircraft fired missiles at militants in the North Waziristan ethnic Pashtun tribal region, on the Afghan border to the southwest of Peshawar.

Pakistani intelligence officials said 10 militants, including two Arabs, were killed.

The United States, alarmed by deteriorating security in Afghanistan, began stepping up drone attacks on Taliban and Al Qaida militants in Pakistan last year.

There has been no let-up since President Barack Obama's administration took office in January, despite objections from Pakistan.

Two missiles were fired into the Khaisor area of the North Waziristan ethnic Pashtun tribal region at around 8am, the security officials said.

One missile hit a house and the other struck a nearby vehicle. Khaisor is about 20 kilometres south of Mir Ali town, a hub for foreign militants in the region. It was the third such attack this month.

The United States has carried out about 40 drone air strikes since the beginning of last year..