By Alamgir Bitani
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Militants attacked a hotel popular with foreigners in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar with guns and a bomb on Tuesday, killing five people and wounding 25, government and security officials said.
Taliban militants have stepped up bomb attacks since the military launched an offensive in the former tourist valley of Swat and neighbouring districts northwest of the capital in April.
A Reuters reporter saw two wounded foreigners coming out of the Pearl Continental Hotel in Peshawar which security officials said militants attacked with guns and a bomb.
"I was in the Chinese restaurant when we heard firing and then a blast. It was totally dark and people started shouting and running," Ali Khan, a hotel waiter, told Reuters.
Last week, Taliban militants were suspected of being behind a suicide blast at a mosque in the Upper Dir region, near Swat, that killed about 40 people.
The United States, which needs sustained Pakistani action to help defeat al Qaeda and cut off militant support for the Afghan Taliban, has been heartened by the resolve the government and military are showing in the Swat offensive.
Alarmed by the possibility of nuclear-armed Pakistan drifting into chaos, the United States had criticised a February pact with the Taliban in Swat.
U.S. Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair said in Washington on Monday the Pakistani army was gaining in its offensive because public support for the operation was solidifying.
"For the first time, the Pakistan army operations in that part of the world have support of the government and the public. This is really different from the past, when the army went up and there was little backing," Blair told intelligence officials.
MILITIA BATTLES TALIBAN
The Pakistani army came to the help of a pro-government militia fighting the Taliban in a northwestern district on Tuesday.
Senior police officer Rahim Gul told Reuters by telephone two army helicopters had attacked militants surrounded by militia fighters in a village.
"There must be militant casualties but we don't know at the moment," Gul said, adding more people were joining the militia and it was making advances after heavy clashes.
Paramilitary soldiers had set up mortars on high ground above the village, Gul said later. About 25 militants have been killed in the fighting, police and the military said.
The villagers' action is the latest in a series of instances of people turning on the Taliban in recent weeks, underscoring the shift in public opinion away from the Islamists.
The military says troops have cleared most of Swat though soldiers are encountering pockets of resistance.
The army said on Tuesday afternoon 14 militants and one soldier had been killed in Swat in the previous 24 hours.
In all, the army says more than 1,300 militants and 105 soldiers have been killed. There has been no independent confirmation of the figures.
The offensive has forced 2.5 million people from their homes and the government risks seeing public support evaporate if they are not looked after.
U.S. envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke also said on Monday that Pakistani public opinion was increasingly on the government's side, and he renewed calls for other Western countries to provide more aid for the displaced.
The United States has pledged more than $300 million for the crisis, compared with less than $200 million (122.8 million pounds) from the rest of the world, he said.
"We have called on other countries to join us in this effort. In the end we are going to need several billion dollars for this small part of Pakistan," Holbrooke said.
(Editing by Robert Birsel)
