Lahore hit in response to drone strikes, says Baitullah

DERA ISMAIL KHAN (Agencies) - Countrys most-wanted militant 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 Mondays 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 on Washington and White House, which will amaze the entire world, Mehsud warned. Mehsud said he had set up a council of mujahideen (holy warriors) grouping different groups 'to step up attacks on US and NATO forces in Afghanistan. He dismissed the US reward for his arrest. The maximum they can do is martyr me, he said. We will exact our revenge on them from inside America. Meanwhile, talking to BBC, Mehsud also claimed responsibility for two other recent deadly attacks. * A suicide attack on a security convoy, also on Monday, near the town of Bannu, which killed seven security personnel. * An attack on the offices of a police station in Islamabad on March 25 But he denied responsibility for the bombing of a mosque in north-west Pakistan on March 27, in which at least 70 people died. He said the attacks would continue 'until the Pakistan government stops supporting the Americans. Mehsud also identified the White House as one of the targets in an interview with local Dewa Radio, a copy of which was obtained by an American news agency. The US Embassy in Islamabad declined to comment on the threat.

ePaper - Nawaiwaqt