Deadly bomb hits Pakistan's North Waziristan

A deadly bomb attack on Monday struck a hotel in North Waziristan, where Pakistan is under US pressure to launch a major operation against Islamist militants, officials said. One person was killed and eight wounded in the blast at the 12-room Super Waziristan hotel in Miranshah, the main town of the tribal region, also known as Pakistan's premier stronghold of Taliban and Al-Qaeda linked militants. "An improvised explosive device (IED) that was planted in one of the rooms went off, initially wounding nine people," an intelligence official told AFP on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media. Another official confirmed the incident and said a girl died of her wounds after reaching hospital. Last Friday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton became the most senior US official to visit Pakistan since Osama bin Laden was found and killed in the country on May 2, urging Islamabad to take decisive steps to defeat Al-Qaeda. The United States has long put pressure on Pakistan to mount a major air and ground offensive in North Waziristan, from where Taliban and Al-Qaeda insurgents launch attacks across the border in Afghanistan. Pakistan has always maintained that any such operation would be of its own time and choosing, arguing that its 140,000 troops committed to the northwest are already too overstretched fighting militants posing a domestic threat. North Waziristan has been the primary focus of a CIA drone war significantly stepped up in the last year to kill Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants who pose a threat to US forces fighting in neighbouring Afghanistan. More than 4,410 people have been killed across Pakistan in attacks blamed on Taliban and other Islamist extremist networks based in the tribal belt since government troops stormed a radical mosque in Islamabad in 2007. The United States has branded the rugged area, which lies outside government control, a headquarters of Al-Qaeda and the most dangerous place on Earth.