Bombing outside bank kills 30 in Pakistan

The U.N. made its decision after losing 11 of its personnel in attacks in Pakistan this year, including last month's bombing of the World Food Program's office in Islamabad that killed five people.

U.N. workers were also among the 11 killed in a June suicide bombing of the Pearl Continental Hotel in the main northwest city of Peshawar, and a veteran U.N. official was shot dead while resisting kidnappers at a northwest Pakistan refugee camp in July.

The world body will reduce the level of international staff in the country and confine its work to emergency, humanitarian relief, and security operations, and also "any other essential operations as advised by the secretary-general," the organization said in a statement.

The U.N. has been deeply involved in helping Pakistan deal with refugee crises that have popped up due to army offensives against militants in the northwest.

U.N. spokeswoman Amena Kamaal told The Associated Press that the organization is still determining which programs will be suspended and how many staffers will be withdrawn from the country. She said "long-term development" applied to programs with a five-plus year time frame.

The staff that remains in the country will be assigned additional security, she said.

"We have had 11 of our colleagues killed because of the security situation," Kamaal said. "All of the decisions are being made in light of that."

Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit said Pakistan understood the U.N.'s reasoning, but that he hoped the organization would resume its development work after the military completed its operation in South Waziristan.

"We hope that our operation will come to an end soon and they will resume their normal operations," he said.

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