Pakistani police say a suicide bomber has killed at least 20 people near the country’s army headquarters in Rawalpindi, where gunmen kept up a nearly 24-hour hostage-taking assault last month. Police say Monday’s blast occurred in the parking lot of the Shalimar hotel, just a few kilometers from the capital, Islamabad. Television stations showed ambulances and police vehicles racing to the scene. The blast comes as the United Nations announced it was withdrawing its international staff from northwestern Pakistan due to security concerns. The Pakistani army is fighting militants in a huge offensive in the South Waziristan tribal region of the northwest. Militants carried out several retaliatory attacks last month that killed hundreds of people.

Pakistan’s foreign minister said Sunday his country’s military is likely to uproot Taliban militants hiding in the mountains along the Afghan border by late December. Shah Mahmood Qureshi said in Malaysia Pakistan’s offensive in South Waziristan has been “very successful” and has the Taliban fighters “on the run.” He spoke on the sidelines of a conference for developing Islamic countries. The army says its forces killed nine terrorists and apprehended two others in recent fighting. It says two soldiers died in the clashes. The military also says it has cleared about half of Kanigurram, a Taliban operational center and a base for Uzbek fighters. The military’s claims can not be independently verified because journalists are not admitted to the battle zone. Source