Khar (Pak), Sept 21 : Pakistan security forces claimed to have killed at least 16 members of the Pakistan unit of the Taliban, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), in fierce gunbattles in Bajaur Agency over the past 24 hours.

Helicopter gunships and artillery were used in the fresh clashes that erupted late on Friday, while five fighters were killed in a gunbattle early on Saturday near Shakai village, the Daily Times quoted a security official as saying.

The other deaths occurred overnight in nearby villages, he said.

The casualty figure could not be independently verified. Residents said that reinforcements, including a large number of fresh troops and tanks had arrived in Bajaur.

Islamabad - Rescuers found more bodies from the gutted Marriott Hotel in the capital Sunday, increasing the official death toll to 52 in one of Pakistan's worst suicide bombings to officials said.

Raging fire that completely destroyed the six-storey building held back the rescuers through the night, before they could conduct room-to-room searches for survivors or bodies who died of suffocation or were burnt alive.

Colombo : –Sri Lanka Sunday condemned the bomb attack at Hotel Marriot in Islamabad and said it supports all measures being taken by Pakistan to combat terrorism.

Islamabad, Sept 21 : In a reaction to last night’s suicide attack on a hotel in Islamabad killing around 50 persons, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari said that the country will not be deterred by the ‘cowardly acts of terrorism’ and that the new PPP-led alliance government will purge their country of this “cancer”.

Addressing his nation on TV late on Saturday, Zardari said that he was aggrieved by the losses in the massive bomb attack and that he knew how it felt to lose a loved one.

He asked his countrymen to ‘turn their grief into power’.

Islamabad - Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari on Sunday left Islamabad to attend the 63rd UN General Assembly session, a day after the country's worst terrorist attack took place in the city, killing at least 50 people and wounding more than 250 more.

Zardari is also expected to meet US President George W Bush in New York on Tuesday to discuss the war strategy and US incursions in inside Pakistan to hunt down al-Qaeda and Taliban militants.

New York - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-