Suicide Bomber Kills 12 In Pakistan's Peshawar

Pakistani warplanes and artillery pounded a Taliban stronghold Friday, as a suicide bomber killed 12 people in the city of Peshawar in the latest in a bloody wave of militant attacks, Reuters reported.

In a show of unity in advance of an expected ground offensive against the Pakistani Taliban in their South Waziristan lair, government, military and political party leaders vowed to root out militancy and restore the writ of the state.

The army has been stepping up its air and artillery attacks in recent days to soften up the militants' defenses while civilians have been fleeing.

The militants have launched a string of brazen attacks in the past 11 days, striking at the United Nations, the army headquarters, police and the general public, killing about 150 people in an apparent effort to stave off the army assault.

"The national consensus is reaffirmed to establish and maintain the writ of the state to weed out these elements," Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani's office said after army chief General Ashfaq Kayani briefed government and party leaders.

The militants posed a serious threat to the sovereignty and integrity of the state, it said. There was no detail about the timing of an offensive which the government says is imminent.

Friday's blast was outside an office of the police's Central Investigation Agency in the capital of North West Frontier Province, a staging post for U.S. supplies into Afghanistan.

Police said a woman appeared to have been involved in the attack, while provincial Information Minister Iftikhar Hussain said the bomber drove up to the police office.

A hospital official said 12 people had been killed and about a dozen were wounded. Television showed anxious policemen wheeling bloodied colleagues into hospital.

Nuclear-armed Pakistan is under U.S. pressure to crack down on Islamist militancy as President Barack Obama considers a boost in troop numbers fighting in neighboring Afghanistan.

Aircraft and artillery struck militant positions in their strongholds of Ladha, Makeen and in the mountainous Shahoor region of South Waziristan overnight, hours after killing 27 militants in the region in strikes.

"We could see thick smoke and flames leaping into the sky from caves in the mountains after the bombing," said a resident near Shahoor. There was no information about casualties.

Later, militants fired rockets at a military camp, killing three soldiers, intelligence officials said.