by Masroor Gilani

ISLAMABAD - A prominent anti-Taliban cleric was among at least six people killed in twin suicide bombings at Pakistani mosques Friday in a day of bloodshed that claimed nearly 80 lives.

A spokesman for Tehreek-e-Taliban, the Taliban Movement of Pakistan, on Friday claimed responsibility for the blasts as well as a suicide attack on a luxury Peshawar hotel earlier this week that killed nine people.

The bombings during Friday prayers confirmed fears that Taliban militants were avenging an offensive against them in the northwest, where the military said Friday 39 insurgents and 10 soldiers had been killed in fresh fighting.

Religious scholar Sarfraz Naeemi, who had spoken out against Taliban suicide bombings, was among two people killed in one of the attacks, at a mosque in the eastern city of Lahore, police said.

A spokesman for Tehreek-e-Taliban on Friday claimed responsibility for the attacks, as well as the bombing of Peshawar's luxury Pearl Continental hotel on Tuesday.

"Anyone who will oppose us to please the Americans will face the same fate," Maulvi Omar told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location.

The much-feared group is headed by the country's most wanted militant Baitullah Mehsud. The United States has offered an award of five-million-dollars for his location or arrest.

In a televised address to the nation, President Asif Ali Zardari early Saturday said Pakistan was battling for its "sovereignty" in a military offensive against a Taliban insurgency, and would fight to the end.

"We are fighting a war for our sovereignty," he said calling for Pakistan to unite behind the anti-Taliban cause.

"We will continue this war until the end, and we will win it at any cost", he said. "The Taliban are the enemies of innocent people. They want to terrorise the people and to take control of the country's institutions."

Friday's attack targeting Naeemi, the head of the Jamia Naeemia madrassa, took place in Lahore's Garhi Shahu neighbourhood, officials said.

Lahore police chief Pervez Rathore said a suicide bomber had entered the room where Naeemi was sitting with others after Friday prayers, and blew himself up. He said two people were killed in the blast.

"Sarfraz Naeemi was seriously injured and shifted to hospital where he passed away," provincial police chief Tariq Saleem Dogar told reporters.

Lahore administration chief Sajjad Bhutta told reporters it appeared likely that Naeemi was targeted because of his support for the military operation aimed at flushing the Taliban out of Swat valley in the troubled northwest.

Naeemi had issued a fatwa (edict) against suicide bombings carried out by Taliban militants.

In the other attack, four people died and at least 105 were wounded when an explosives-filled car ploughed into a mosque in the northwestern garrison town of Nowshera just as people had gathered for Friday prayers, police said.

The roof of the mosque caved in after the blast and a number of people were trapped under the rubble, police official Imran Kishwar told AFP, adding that the death toll could rise.

Friday's bombings are the latest in a string of attacks widely seen as revenge by the Taliban for the punishing military offensive launched against insurgents around Swat valley on April 26.

At least 39 Taliban and 10 soldiers had been killed in fierce fighting in the Malakand region of Swat valley during the last 24 hours, the military said Friday.

The numbers could not be verified independently.

The campaign in and around Swat was launched under US pressure after Taliban fighters advanced to within 100 kilometres (60 miles) of Islamabad, breaking a deal to put three million people under sharia law in exchange for peace.

Pakistan's tribal zones harbour Taliban and Al-Qaeda rebels who fled the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, and Washington has said militants are using the lawless areas to regroup and plan attacks on the West.

At least 20 people were killed in other clashes and attacks in northwest Pakistan Friday, police said.

Taliban-linked attacks have killed more than 1,960 people in Pakistan since July 2007. -AFP