TTP accepts responsibility for Peshawar blast
‘We accept the attacks on the American consulate. This is revenge for drone attacks’, TTP spokesman Azam Tariq told a news agency by telephone from an undisclosed location, the DawnNews reported.
‘We have already told you that we have 2,800 to 3,000 fidayeen (suicide bombers). We will carry out more such attacks. We will target any place where there are Americans’, Tariq reportedly said minutes after the blasts in the afternoon.
Gunmen wearing paramilitary uniforms, who arrived in two vehicles, fired mortars and rocket-propelled grenades at the heavily fortified Consulate compound in an attempt to get inside but did not succeed.
Television footage showed a heavy mushroom cloud and smoke rising into the air over the US consulate and the Peshawar headquarters of Pakistan’s top spy agency in the Saddar area, which was bombed last November.
The US consulate has been attacked several times in the past. The latest attack appears to be similar to recent gun-and-bomb raids in Lahore and Rawalpindi..
The blasts in Peshawar came hours after a suicide bomb attack on a rally organised by Awami National Party (ANP) at Timergarah about 80 km from Peshawar in lower Dir district, which adjoins Swat Valley
At least 36 people were killed as a lone suicide bomber blew himself up in the middle of the rally taken out to celebrate the renaming of the NWFO to Kyber-Pakhtinkhawa.
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