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A suicide bomber hit a crowded market in Peshawar, in northwestern Pakistan,on Friday. The attack killed 49 people,including 7 children. Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik says a proposed military operation in South Waziristan is now unavoidable.

The attack in Peshawar, which wounded more than 100 people, was Pakistan's deadliest in six months.

The blast left the charred hulk of a bus flipped over on its side in the middle of the road, with the twisted remains of a motorbike nearby.

Eyevitness Ajab Gul said, "I was working here at the time in my shop, when suddenly the blast took place and there was dust and smoke everywhere."

Peshawar police said the attacker was in a car packed with a "huge" amount of explosives and artillery rounds.

There was no claim of responsibility for the bombing, the target of which was not immediately apparent.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said Friday's attack meant the country now had no other option but to carry out a military operation in South Waziristan.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said, "After the successful operation in Swat, the people, public and tribes of North Waziristan and South Waziristan, it is their demand that the remaining Taliban should face action."

The army has confirmed it is prepared to launch a major offensive in South Waziristan.

Also on Friday, militants ambushed a tanker carrying fuel for US and NATO forces in Afghanistan at a petrol station near Peshawar, torching it. No deaths or injuries were reported in the attack.

The bombings come just days after a Taliban suicide attacker evaded tight security to kill five people at the office of the UN's World Food Program in the capital, Islamabad.