Word: attack
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...Pakistani Taliban's audacious, coordinated assault on the U.S. consulate in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Monday suggests that intense operations by the Pakistani military against them have done little to diminish their capacity to retaliate or attack. Shortly after 1 p.m. on Monday, successive car bombs rocked the heavily secured zone near the consulate, spewing thick plumes of grayish smoke over the area, which also houses important Pakistani military personnel. Then, at least six heavily armed assailants dressed in military fatigues and traveling in two vehicles attacked Pakistani police roadblocks with rockets, grenades and weapons fire and attempted...
...attack - which left at least seven people dead, including four militants but no Americans - marked a departure from the Taliban's more frequent prey, Pakistani military and intelligence officials and facilities. "Americans are our enemies. We carried out the attack on their consulate in Peshawar. We plan more such attacks," Reuters quoted Pakistani Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq as saying. (See "The Taliban's Low-Tech Defense Against U.S. Drones...
...been recent warnings that the Taliban would resume their campaign of terrorism against sensitive targets. On March 31, a militant identified as Qari Hussein - considered the head of the Taliban's squad of suicide bombers - told the English-language daily Dawn that the Taliban would "refresh memories of the attack on the Khost base" in Afghanistan, which left seven CIA agents dead. (See TIME columnist Robert Baer's assessment of the damage to the CIA after the Khost attack...
According to several Pakistani security and defense analysts, one factor that may have instigated Monday's attack was the U.S.-led coalition forces' imminent plan to push into the Afghan Taliban's stronghold of Kandahar. The message: If the Americans and NATO create problems for the Taliban in Afghanistan, then Taliban militants have the option to target American sites anywhere. And in that case, "Peshawar is the easiest target," says Dr. Hasan Askari Rizvi, a defense analyst and professor emeritus of political science at the University of Punjab in Lahore...
...gateway to Pakistan's restive tribal belt, Peshawar is "within easy reach" of the Taliban militants who are based in the country's lawless zone, says Dr. Riffat Hussein, chairman of the Department of Defense and Strategic Studies at Quaid-e-Azam University. "This is a payback attack for what the Pakistan army has tried to do to them in the tribal areas, and the Americans as well, in addition to the anticipated Kandahar attack." Cross-border infiltration - and coordination - between the Pakistani and Afghan Taliban remains a key obstacle. Rizvi says the threat posed by the linkage will take...