Taliban Suicide Bombers Attack School in
Peshawar; At Least 23 Killed
PESHWAR: At least 23 people, mostly children, were killed and 36
wounded in a Taliban attack on an army-run school in Pakistan on Tuesday,
officials said. (Peshawar school attack: Track
LIVE updates)
The health minister
for Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the restive northwestern province where the attack took
place, said teachers were also among the dead.
The militants were
ordered to shoot older students, a Taliban spokesman said, adding the attack
was revenge for a major military offensive.
At least five
insurgents wearing military uniforms entered the Army Public School in the city
of Peshawar, a source at the school told AFP.
A senior military
official said troops had surrounded the school and television footage showed
them taking up positions.
Sharif Khan, a
doctor at Peshawar's Lady Reading Hospital, told AFP they had received 35
wounded, two of them teachers, as well as the bodies of three students.
A senior police
official confirmed the death toll and warned it was likely to rise, saying a
"huge blast" had occurred inside the school.
The
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack, saying
it was retaliation for the army's continuing operation against militants in the
North Waziristan tribal area close to Peshawar.
A senior military
official told AFP that troops had cordoned off the area around the school and
were hunting down the militants.
The school on
Peshawar's Warsak Road is part of the Army Public Schools and Colleges System,
which runs 146 schools nationwide for the children of military personnel and
civilians. Its students range in age from around 10 to 18.
The schools educate
the children of both officers and non-commissioned soldiers and army wives
often teach in them.
A security official
told AFP that hundreds of students and staff were in the school when the attack
began, though it was not immediately clear how many are still being held.
TTP spokesman
Muhammad Khorasani told AFP there were six attackers.
"They include
target killers and suicide attackers. They have been ordered to shoot the older
students but not the children," he said.
"This attack is
a response to Zarb-e-Azab and the killing of Taliban fighters and harassing
their families."
Zarb-e-Azb is the
official name for the army's offensive against strongholds of the Taliban and
other militants in North Waziristan.
The offensive has
killed more than 1,600 militants, according to an AFP tally.
The military has
hailed the operation as a major success in disrupting Taliban militancy.
The semi-autonomous
tribal areas that border Afghanistan have for years been a hideout for Islamist
militants of all stripes - including Al Qaeda and the homegrown TTP as well as
foreign fighters such as Uzbeks and Uighurs.
Washington pressed
Islamabad for years to wipe out the sanctuaries in North Waziristan, which
militants have used to launch attacks on NATO forces in Afghanistan.
Pasted
from <http:www.ndtv.com