Pakistan attacks kill 46, target US consulate

AFP, Monday, April 5, 2010

Lehaz Ali

Taliban fighters armed with guns, grenades and suicide car bombs targeted the US consulate in Pakistan's northwestern capital and a political rally, killing 46 people on Monday.

The attacks in quick succession were among the deadliest so far this year in nuclear-armed Pakistan, where insecurity has raised concerns in the United States as Washington steps up the fight in Afghanistan.

Pakistan's  Taliban claimed responsibility for the consulate attack, saying it was to avenge a US drone war targeting top Taliban fighters in Pakistan's border areas with Afghanistan, and threatened further assaults on Americans.

That heavily armed Taliban fighters managed to approach the US mission underscored the potency of their threat despite stepped-up Pakistani offensives and US drone attacks focused on Taliban commanders.

Five security officials were killed when at least eight Taliban fighters armed with guns, grenades and two car bombs targeted the heavily guarded US consulate in Peshawar, a city of 2.5 million on the edge of Pakistan's lawless tribal belt.

The US said at least two Pakistani security guards employed by the consulate were killed and a number of others seriously wounded, but that no Americans died.

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari vowed to parliament on Monday: "Militancy and extremism have been the greatest threat to our national security in recent times. I assure you we will fight militancy to the finish."

Police said two car bombs exploded -- at a checkpoint 50 metres from the mission and the second laden with about 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of explosives close to the consulate gate, followed by an exchange of fire.

North West Frontier Province information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain told reporters that five security officials and six Taliban fighters were killed.

The security barrier near the US consulate gate was damaged, and shells from rocket-propelled grenades and hand grenades were left lying in the area, which was sealed off by Pakistani police and army, witnesses said.

Although the precise number of assailants was unclear, Bashir Ahmad Bilour, a provincial cabinet minister, said two Taliban fighters fled during the cross fire.

US missile strikes have killed more than 860 people since August 2008 in Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal belt, surging under President Barack Obama as he steps up efforts to end the war in neighbouring Afghanistan.

"We accept the attacks on the American consulate. This is revenge for drone attacks," Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan spokesman Azam Tariq told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location.

"We will carry out more such attacks. We will target any place where there are Americans," he said.

Around 3,200 people have been killed in suicide and bomb attacks over the last three years in Pakistan, blamed on militants opposed to the US alliance.

Also Monday, a suicide bomber attacked a rally in the northwest district of Lower Dir, where Pakistan waged a major offensive against local Taliban fighters last year before switching its operations to the tribal belt.

"People were dancing and some were beating drums when suddenly there was a powerful explosion," Iqbal Akbar, a shopkeeper, told AFP from his bed in Peshawar's main Lady Reading hospital.

"It felt like someone thrust a hot iron rod into my shoulder. I fell on the ground and a severed hand fell on my chest," he said.

Qazi Jamil, police chief for the region of Malakand, told AFP that 41 people were killed and 82 wounded in the suicide car bomb attack.

The Awami National Party (ANP) said it organised the meeting to celebrate plans to rename North West Frontier Province to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, as laid out in a package of constitutional reform being debated in the federal parliament.