Malik, Pakistan's interior minister, says a ground assault in South Waziristan is imminent [AFP]

The suicide bombing, which struck a convoy, was in Alpurai, Shangla, a district used as a transit route and which borders the Swat valley in the North-West Frontier Province.

Major Mushtaq Khan, a spokesman at the military-run Swat Media Centre, said at least four security personnel had been killed and several more injured in Monday's attack.

"Five of the troops are in serious condition. It was a suicide blast. The attacker was on foot," Khan said.

Fazlullah Khan, a member of parliament for Shangla, put the toll at 41, but said on the Geo television channel that his information suggested that the bomber had driven an explosives-packed car into the convoy.

"The target was a security convoy near an army checkpost," he said. "This is a crowded bazaar and a lot of people were present at that time."

The convoy was said to be carrying ammunitions which exploded during the attack raising the death toll.

In April, the neighbouring Swat valley was the target of a military offensive, with the army claiming to have flushed Taliban fighters out of the one-time tourist destination.

Taliban claim

The Pakistan army sent in commandos on Sunday to storm an office and rescue dozens of its own security officials taken captive after an attack on the general army headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi, near the capital Islamabad.

Azam Tariq, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility on Monday for that attack, saying "it was carried out by our Punjab unit".

The Pakistani air force was quick to respond with bombings targeting suspected Taliban fighters in South Waziristan.

"The jets hit and destroyed two of their hideouts in Makeen and Ladha and we have a total of about 16 militants killed," an unnamed Pakistani intelligence official told Reuters news agency.

But the military has been conducting air and artillery raids in South Waziristan for months, while moving troops, blockading the region and trying to split armed opposition to Islamabad's authority.

Rehman Malik, the Pakistani interior minister, said in an interview in Singapore that a ground offensive was "imminent".

"There is no mercy for them because our determination and resolve is to flush them out," he said.

"They have no room in Pakistan, I promise you."
 
Malik said members of the Pakistani Taliban and al-Qaeda were suspects in Saturday's GHQ attack, which ended a week when suicide bombers struck in the capital and Peshawar, the provincial capital of North-West Frontier Province, killing more than 50 people.
 
He also said the offensive against the fighters in South Waziristan was no longer a matter of choice.

"It is not an issue of commitment, it is becoming a compulsion because there was an appeal from the local tribes that we should do the operation," Malik said.

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