Pakistani warplanes strike Taliban's Waziristan redoubt

By Augustine Anthony

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani warplanes struck a stronghold of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud on Saturday in retaliation for the killing of an anti-Taliban cleric the previous day, the military said.

U.S. officials, thankful their nuclear-armed ally has gone on the offensive to stop a Taliban tide sweeping the northwest, said Pakistan looked set to mount a significant offensive against Mehsud's forces in South Waziristan bordering Afghanistan.

Mehsud's network is blamed for many suicide attacks including the assassination of Zardari's wife, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, in December 2007.

Hours before the attack on Mehsud's stronghold, President Asif Ali Zardari vowed in a televised address to wage war against militancy "to the end".

Under pressure in their sanctuaries, Islamist militants have responded with a wave of bomb attacks in Pakistani cities, including one on Tuesday that killed nine people and devastated the top hotel in Peshawar, the main city in the northwest.

A prominent anti-Taliban cleric who had condemned suicide bombings was killed in a suicide bomb attack in the city of Lahore on Friday. Six other people were killed.

"In response to the suicide attack ... two terrorist compounds were targeted," the military said in a statement, adding the number of casualties could not be ascertained.

Intelligence officials in the area, who declined to be identified, said seven militants were killed and five wounded.