Taliban Leader Vows To Attack D.C. Says “Will Amaze The World”
Posted: 31 Mar 2009 07:59 AM PDT
UPDATE:Taliban Leader’s Washington Threat Is Credible, Analysts Say
Terrorism experts call Mehsud a “rising young star” who is linked both to the December 2007 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and the bombing last September that killed 54 people in the Marriott hotel in Islamabad — and they say his threat to carry out an attack in Washington should not be discounted.“It should be taken seriously because [Mehsud] has ordered the deaths of many Pakistanis and Afghans and has a close alliance with Al Qaeda,” said James Phillips, a terrorism expert and senior research fellow for Middle Eastern Affairs at the Heritage Foundation.
“It’s not too much of a stretch to think he might be involved in an attack on the U.S. if he’s able to get his followers inside the United States. He’s a militant extremist whose threats cannot be ignored.
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Pakistan’s most wanted militant on Tuesday claimed responsibility for a deadly police academy assault and threatened to attack the US capital in retaliation for a series of air strikes.
Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, for whom the United States has posted a five-million-dollar reward, said there would be more attacks after Monday’s raid on the Lahore police training school which left 12 people dead.
“We claim responsibility for the attack,” Mehsud, blamed for the 2007 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location.
“This was in retaliation for the ongoing drone attacks in the tribal areas. There will be more such attacks.”
“Very soon we will take revenge from America, not in Afghanistan but in Washington, which will amaze the entire world,” Mehsud warned.
The U.S. recently announced a $5 million bounty on Mehsud’s head. Asked about it, he stated he would be happy to “embrace martyrdom.”
Mehsud has made voluminous threats against the West for years, as he rose to his current stature as the head of the Taliban in Pakistan, and he gave no apparent specifics in his threat on the U.S. capital on Tuesday.
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DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan — The commander of the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility Tuesday for a deadly assault on a Pakistani police academy and said the group was planning a terrorist attack on the U.S. capital.
Terrorists Attack Police Academy in Lahore Pakistan
Posted: 30 Mar 2009 10:45 AM PDT
Unidentified gunmen armed with assault rifles and grenades made a violent attack on a police training school in eastern Pakistan city of Lahore on Monday, leaving the city overshadowed with terrorism threats.
The intense fighting between Pakistan military and police and the gunmen started from 7:30 a.m. local time in the second largest city in Pakistan and lasted about eight hours.
Advisor on Prime Minister’s Interior Rehman Malik confirmed that four terrorists have been killed and the others have been arrested, but he did not give exact figure of the gunmen as well as the figure of casualties in the attack.
There is still conflicting reports on the casualties. Earlier reports said at least 25 people were killed and 90 others injured when the masked gunmen attacked the police.
A group of armed men huddled next to a minaret on a mosque rooftop leapt to their feet and shouted “Allahu Akbar”. For once it was Pakistani security forces celebrating rather than militants. Across a main road in the water-buffalo market town of Manawan, outside Lahore, police commandos fired triumphal “aerial” rounds. They had recaptured a police-training centre which militants had stormed eight hours earlier on Monday March 30th.
Lax security at the ramshackle academy allowed a dozen militants to rampage among 800 or more mostly unarmed police recruits. “The operation is over,” said the interior minister, Rehman Malik. He said that if security forces had not been on high alert, the toll would have been higher. “The attack was to dishearten, to demoralise the civilian security services,” said a local administrator. Terrorist attacks in Pakistan have become such frequent occurrences that people have grown used to asking when and where the next assault would come.
Cadets said that the militants burst onto the parade ground at 7.30am through the main gate and from the rear, spraying rounds from Kalashnikovs and hurling grenades. The terrorists’ faces were obscured by black cloth. Several were reported to have donned police uniforms. Policemen jumped from second-floor windows and stampeded over walls to escape. An armoured personnel carrier advanced then beat a retreat. A lull in the firefight ensued.
Just before 4pm commandos fought back, launching an assault amid intense gunfire. Spectators watching from the bazaar scuttled for cover during several minutes of crackle and blasts. It was a rare success and a joint operation by the army, paramilitary rangers and Punjab’s “elite” police squad. Even the smart, cravat-wearing highway police played a role.
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Gunmen Made Stand in Pakistan Barracks’ Top Floor
Blood-soaked bedding was strewn with blackened body parts in a police barracks in the Pakistani city of Lahore on Monday after the last of the gunmen who stormed the building blew themselves up.
The attackers, armed with grenades and rifles, launched an assault on the police training center during a morning drill session, shooting down recruits on their dusty parade ground.
They held off police and soldiers for about eight hours before the last three gunmen made a stand on the top floor of the three-storey building. They blew themselves up as security forces launched a final assault, police said.
At least eight recruits were killed and 89 wounded. Four gunmen were killed and three were captured, the government said. Rehman Malik, the Interior Ministry head, said the Pakistani Taliban were suspected of carrying out the attack.
“I can’t tell you what I saw and what kind of terror I went through,” 19-year-old recruit Zahid Usman told his mother by mobile phone shortly after the violence ended.
“They were not human beings. They were not Muslims, they were evil,” a sobbing Usman said.
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Fighters Loyal to Pakistani Taliban Leader Baitullah Mehsud Suspected
Fighters loyal to Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud were suspected of carrying out an attack on a police academy in Lahore on Monday, Interior Ministry head Rehman Malik said.
The militants killed eight cadets before being overwhelmed by a commando assault. Four militants died during the assault, while three suspects have been captured, officials said.
Malik told a news conference that one of the suspects was an Afghan.
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Comments:
Donnie writes: Oh Well.... Nobody will really miss it.
caday5 writes: As We have heard... these claims before, we have to admit that we have done way too little to fight terrorism. Specifically, we have not even listened to, let alone address the real causes of terrorism. Today's terrorism is about retaliation for what we have done.