PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Pakistan vowed to launch a new offensive against militant strongholds along the Afghan border after a suicide bomber blew up a car near a crowded outdoor market Friday, killing 49 people in the bloodiest attack to hit the country in six months.
The United States has been pushing Pakistan to take strong action against insurgents who are using its soil as a base for attacks in neighboring Afghanistan. A push into the rugged mountains of South Waziristan could be risky for the army, which was beaten back on three previous offensives into the Taliban heartland there and forced to sign peace deals.
But the army might have been emboldened by a reasonably successful military campaign in the Swat Valley and adjoining Buner district and by the killing in a U.S. missile strike of Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud.
Islamic militants have been carrying out nearly weekly attacks in Pakistan, but the sheer scale of the bombing Friday, which killed nine children, pushed the government to declare it would take the fight to South Waziristan, part of the lawless tribal belt where al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden might be hiding.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the militants had left the government “no other option” but to hit back.
The massive blast tore through a busy road in the heart of Peshawar, a city of more than 3 million people about 150 miles northeast of South Waziristan along the Afghan border. The force of the bomb flipped a bus on its side, ripped apart a motorbike and flung debris down the street.
Peshawar Police Chief Liaqat Ali Khan said the attacker drove a car packed with a massive amount of explosives and artillery rounds. The blast was heard for miles around.
There was no claim of responsibility for the bombing, and its target was not immediately apparent. Militants typically attack government, military or Western targets, but previous blasts have hit public places as well.
South Waziristan is filled with independent, heavily armed Pashtun tribes hostile to outsiders — including the Pakistani army.
