Bomb in Pakistan's Northwest Kills 4

[KillBill]

Pakistani police say a suicide bomber blew up his pickup truck filled with explosives near a police station in the country's northwest, killing at least four people and wounding more than 25.

Officials say the bombing is the seventh in a week to explode in and around the city of Peshawar. Monday's blast severely damaged the police station, a mosque and other nearby buildings.

The area has seen a wave of attacks that has killed hundreds of people since the army launched its offensive on the Taliban's stronghold in Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal region.

Militants say they are taking revenge for the government assault that began in mid-October.

On Sunday, militants attacked the homes of two pro-government elders and killed one of them.

Police said militants approached the home of a village mayor near Peshawar, triggering a gun battle in which three of the attackers were killed. The mayor survived the assault.

Local police said gunmen also shot dead anti-Taliban tribal elder Malik Sher Zaman during a separate attack Sunday at his home in the Bajaur tribal region.

Meanwhile, Pakistani officials say the death toll from a suicide car bombing in Peshawar Saturday stands at 13.

Local officials say at least 25 people were wounded in the blast.

The military said it killed five militants in the South Waziristan tribal region since Saturday.

VOA News - Bomb in Pakistan's Northwest Kills 4

---------- Post added at 05:31 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:31 PM ----------

^^^
7th in a Week, Dat means one blast per day.
Barbarians

 

[KillBill]

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Taliban leaders have claimed responsibility for a wave of suicide bombings that have battered the Pakistani city of Peshawar. The militants also vow to carry out more attacks in the future.

But a Taliban spokesman also denied responsibility for some of the deadliest suicide bombings in recent history, saying they were staged by Pakistani intelligence agencies to sap support for the militants.

On Monday morning, a suicide bomber in a car loaded with hundreds of kilograms of explosives self-detonated outside a police station in Peshawar, killing at least six people and wounding 25.

It was the sixth suicide bomb attack in and around the provincial capital in eight days.

"These are religiously legitimate targets," Azam Tariq, the spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban (Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan), said in a videotaped statement released over the Internet this weekend.

"The targets of the Tehrik-i-Taliban have always been clear: those state organizations who at the behest of the Americans target the Tehrik-i-Taliban and have the blood of our martyrs on their hands."

He went on to deny responsibility for the twin suicide bombings at the International Islamic University in Islamabad and for the October 28 car bombing of a crowded Peshawar market, which killed more then 100 people.

"I want to make it clear to the Muslim world, especially Pakistan, that the bomb blasts targeting civilians are not the work of the mujahedeen," Tariq said. "Instead, it is the work of Pakistan's sinister secret organizations and Blackwater."

He was referring to the controversial American security company formerly known as Blackwater, now Xe Services LLC.

Reports about the alleged and often unsubstantiated activities of U.S. security contractors have become the focus of much speculation and anger in the Pakistani media in recent weeks.

In response to such claims, Xe spokeswoman Stacy DeLuke said last week, "We have no contracts in Pakistan. Our competitor holds that WPPS (worldwide personal protection services) contract.

"We've been blamed for all that has gone wrong in Peshawar, none of which is true, since we have absolutely no presence there."

DeLuke added: "Just as Kleenex has become the generic name for all tissues, we've become the generic name for all private contractors, regardless of truth or validity."

In making his claims, Tariq read his statement before the camera, seated with his back to a tree in a mountainous area.

In recent days, Taliban officials have called news organizations to contradict battlefield claims by the Pakistani military. More then four weeks ago, the Pakistani army mounted an offensive against the remote Taliban stronghold of South Waziristan. The army says it has killed hundreds of militants, a claim that cannot be independently verified. Pakistani authorities have banned foreign observers from the conflict zone.

More then 160,000 civilians have fled the fighting.

In a call to CNN on Saturday, Qari Hussein, the man thought to have masterminded the Taliban's suicide bombing campaign, said only 14 militants had been killed in the four-week operation.

He claimed responsibility for a massive car bombing last Friday, which destroyed the entrance to the Pakistan spy agency's headquarters in Peshawar. Hussein also vowed to carry out more bomb attacks, and to add Pakistani political parties that criticize the Taliban to his list of targets.

"Only time will tell who the real ruler of Waziristan will be," Hussein said. "The government, the army or the Taliban."





Taliban claims some attacks, denies others in Pakistan - CNN.com