Pakistan suicide bombs kill 80 to avenge bin Laden

By RIAZ KHAN, Associated Press – 1 hr 1 min ago
SHABQADAR, Pakistan – A pair of suicide bombers attacked recruits leaving a paramilitary training center in Pakistan on Friday, killing 80 people in the first retaliation for the killing of Osama bin Laden by American commandos. The Taliban claimed responsibility, blaming the Pakistani military for failing to stop the U.S. raid.
The blasts in the northwest were a reminder of the savagery of al-Qaida-linked militants in Pakistan. They occurred even as the country faces international suspicion that elements within its security forces may have been harboring bin Laden, who was killed last week in a raid in Abbottabad, about a three hours' drive from the scene of the bombing.
"We have done this to avenge the Abbottabad incident," Ahsanullah Ahsan, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, told The Associated Press in a phone call. He warned that the group was also planning attacks on Americans living inside Pakistan.
The bombers blew themselves up in Shabqadar at the main gate of the facility for the Frontier Constabulary, a poorly equipped but front-line force in the battle against al-Qaida and allied Islamist groups like the Pakistani Taliban close to the Afghan border. Like other branches of Pakistan's security forces, it has received U.S. funding to try to sharpen its skills.
At least 80 people were killed, including 66 recruits, and around 120 people were wounded, said police officer Liaqat Ali Khan.
Around 900 young men were leaving the center after spending six months of training there. They were in high spirits and looking forward to seeing their families, for which some had brought gifts, a survivor said.
Click image to see more photos of Pakistan

AP/Mohammad Sajjad
Some people were sitting inside public minivans and others were loading luggage atop the vehicles when the bombers struck, witnesses said.
"We were heading toward a van when the first blast took place and we fell on the ground and then there was another blast," said 21-year-old Rehmanullah Khan. "We enjoyed our time together, all the good and bad weather and I cannot forget the cries of my friends before they died."
The scene was littered with shards of glass mixed with blood and flesh. The explosions destroyed at least 10 vans.
It was the first major militant attack in Pakistan since bin Laden's death on May 2, and the deadliest this year.
Militants had pledged to avenge the killing and launch reprisal strikes in Pakistan.
The Taliban spokesman suggested the attack was aimed as punishment against Pakistani authorities for failing to stop the unilateral U.S. raid that killed bin Laden, something that has sparked popular nationalist and Islamist anger.
"The Pakistani army has failed to protect its land," Ahsan said.
In its communications, the Taliban often tries to tap into popular sentiments in the country, where anti-Americanism is often stronger than feelings against Islamist militants. This is despite militant attacks over the last four years claiming the lives of many hundreds, if not thousands, of civilians.
Some 350 lawyers sympathetic with Islamists attended special prayers for bin Laden on the premises of the provincial high court in the eastern city of Lahore on Friday. The lawyers cursed the May 2 raid, chanting "Down with America."
The explosive vests used in Friday's attacks were packed with ball bearings and nails, police said.
Police official Nisar Khan said a suicide bomber in his late teens or early 20s set off one of the blasts.
"The first blast occurred in the middle of the road, and after that there was a huge blast that was more powerful than the first," said Abdul Wahid, a 25-year-old recruit whose legs were wounded in the blasts.
Bin Laden, the Sept. 11 mastermind, and at least four others were killed by U.S. Navy SEALs who raided his compound in Abbottabad. Bin Laden is believed to have lived in the large house for up to six years.
Pakistani officials have denied knowing he was there but have criticized the American raid ordered by President Barack Obama as a violation of their country's sovereignty. To counter allegations that Pakistan had harbored bin Laden, the officials have pointed out that many thousands of Pakistani citizens, and up to 3,000 of its security forces, have died in suicide bombings and other attacks since Sept. 11, 2001, when Islamabad became an ally of the U.S. in taking on Islamist extremists.
Many of the attacks in Pakistan have targeted security forces, but government buildings, religious minorities, public places and Western targets have also been hit.
In another development Friday, Pakistani intelligence officials said a U.S. missile strike killed three people near the Afghan border.
The four missiles struck a vehicle in the Doga Madakhel village of North Waziristan tribal region. North Waziristan is home to many militant groups dedicated to attacking Western troops in Afghanistan.
The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media. They did not know the identities of the dead.
___
Associated Press writers Ashraf Khan and Deb Riechmann in Islamabad, Babar Dogar in Lahore and Ishtiaq Mahsud in Dera Ismail Khan contributed to this report.


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Q+A-Pakistan's Taliban - who are they what can they do?

13 May 2011 10:34

Source: reuters // Reuters

By Robert Birsel

ISLAMABAD, May 13 (Reuters) - Pakistani Taliban militants claimed responsibility on Friday for a double bomb attack on paramilitary force academy in the town of Charsadda that killed 80 people, saying it was their first revenge strike for the killing of Osama bin Laden on May 2.

A militant spokesman vowed more such attacks.

Following are some questions and answers about the Pakistani Taliban, their motives and capabilities.

WHO ARE THE PAKISTANI TALIBAN?

The militants are mostly ethnic Pashtuns from the semi-autonomous tribal belt along the Afghan border where Pakistan and the United States poured in weapons in the 1980s to support Islamist fighters, including bin Laden, battling Soviet forces in Afghanistan.

There are different Taliban factions in places such as North and South Waziristan, Bajaur and Mohmand, united under the Pakistani Taliban banner. They have links with the Afghan Taliban, most of whom are fellow Pashtuns although the Afghan militants do not attack in Pakistan.

The Pakistani Taliban have strong links with al Qaeda and militant factions from other parts of Pakistan, in particular Punjab province. Pakistani Taliban have been providing training and other support to outside militants, including Westerners, in their strongholds.

WHAT ARE THEY FIGHTING FOR?

They are vehemently opposed to Pakistan's alliance with the United States in the campaign against militancy launched after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. As Pakistan, under U.S. pressure, stepped up operations against militants on the Afghan border, Pakistani Taliban attacks on the security forces picked up.

They launched their war against Pakistan in earnest after security forces cleared gunmen from a radical mosque in the capital, Islamabad, in July 2007 with the loss of about 100 lives.

WHAT ARE THEIR METHODS

The militants have killed hundreds of pro-government tribal leaders in the Pashtun border lands, decimating traditional power networks through which the central government exerted control, and imposing their vision of Islamist rule.

While taking control of much of the tribal belt, the militants have repeatedly attacked the security forces in northwestern towns and cities with suicide bombers and ambushes. They have tried to expand their zones of influence and took control of the scenic Swat valley, northwest of Islamabad, before the military launched an offensive in 2009 to push them out.

WHAT ARE THEIR CAPABILITIES

The militants have shown time and again that they can inflict heavy casualties wherever they want and they have the capability to launch sophisticated assaults on prime targets at the heart of the security establishment.

They have attacked the army's headquarters in the city of Rawalpindi and a nearby mosque where many officers were praying. They have blown up buses carrying staff of the main Inter-Services Intelligence agency to work in Rawalpindi and set off car bombs outside several offices of the ISI and other security agencies in various cities including Lahore.

They have attacked military and police training facilities, with suicide bombers and gunmen, in several places in the northwest. They have attacked numerous military camps and the country's main defense industry complex. They have set off bombs in mosques where their rivals were praying and numerous gatherings of rival tribal elders. They have attacked offices of the United Nations and aid groups, a visiting Sri Lankan cricket team and the shrines of moderate Sufis and members of rival sects.

The Pakistani Taliban have claimed responsibility for the assassination of numerous army over recent years officers and a Christian government minister this year. They were accused of killing former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in 2007 but they denied it.

WHAT IS THEIR REACH?

While their activities have been almost entirely confined to Pakistan, they have shown an interest in expanding their range under the banner of al Qaeda.

A suicide bombing at a U.S. base in Afghanistan's Khost province in 2009, carried out by a Jordanian national, killed seven Central Intelligence Agency employees. In video footage released after the attack, the bomber was shown sitting with Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud, a stark illustration of growing links between the Pakistani insurgents and foreign militants.

A Pakistani-born American who tried to set off a car bomb in New York's Times Square last year told a court he got bomb-making training and funding from the Pakistani Taliban.


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Bombers take bin Laden revenge in Pakistan

13 May 2011 22:35

Source: reuters // Reuters

* Suicide bombers kill 80 people at paramilitary academy

* Spy agency chief "ready to resign" over bin Laden affair

* Pakistani military official calls off U.S. visit

* U.S. authorities interview bin Laden's widows (Adds U.S. lawmaker on Zawahri, paragraph 26)

By Mian Khursheed

CHARSADDA, Pakistan, May 13 (Reuters) - Suicide bombers killed 80 people at a Pakistani paramilitary academy on Friday in revenge for the death of Osama bin Laden in a U.S. raid and militants in Pakistan vowed to carry out more attacks.

A member of the Pakistani parliament said Lieutenant-General Ahmad Shuja Pasha, Pakistan's spy chief, said he was "ready to resign" over the bin Laden affair that has embarrassed the nation. Pakistan's opposition leader accused the Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, spy agency of negligence and incompetence.

Followers of bin Laden have vowed revenge for the al Qaeda chief's death and the Pakistani Taliban said Friday's attack by two suicide bombers in the northwestern town of Charsadda was their first taste of vengeance.

"There will be more," militant spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said by telephone from an undisclosed location.

The bombers struck as recruits were going on leave and 65 of them were among the 80 dead. Pools of blood strewn with soldiers' caps and shoes lay on the road outside the academy as the wounded, looking dazed with parts of their clothes ripped away by shrapnel, were loaded into trucks.

Pakistan's military and government have drawn criticism at home, partly for not finding bin Laden but more for failing to detect or stop the U.S. raid on May 2 that killed him.

A senior Pakistani general also canceled a planned visit to the United States. Pakistan depends heavily on U.S. aid.

In addition, U.S. authorities in Pakistan interviewed three of bin Laden's widows, detained by Pakistan in the compound after the U.S. raid, but gathered little new information, U.S. officials said in Washington. [ID:nN13104663]

Pakistan said it would repatriate the three widows and their children. One is from Yemen and the others from Saudi Arabia. <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

For full bin Laden coverage [ID:nBINLADEN]

SPECIAL REPORT-The bin Laden kill plan [ID:nL3E7GC4G]

US video of bin Laden http://r.reuters.com/jym49r

Picture slideshow http://r.reuters.com/nym49r

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U.S. special forces killed bin Laden, the man behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, at a compound near Pakistan's top military academy in the northern town of Abbottabad. Pakistan welcomed his death as a major step against militancy but called the secret U.S. raid a violation of its sovereignty.

Shahid Ali, 28, was on his way to his shop when the bombs went off in Charsadda. He tried to help survivors. "A young boy was lying near a wrecked van asked me to take him to hospital. I got help and we got him into a vehicle," Ali said.

'DISRUPT, DISMANTLE AND DEFEAT'

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner condemned the attack, offered condolences to the families of the victims, and stressed the U.S. alliance with Pakistan.

"Terrorists have shown time and again that they are the true enemy ... of the people and the government of Pakistan," Toner said. "We respect the nation's sacrifices in the fight against terrorism and will continue to stand with Pakistan in our joint struggle to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al Qaeda and allied terrorist organizations."

White House spokesman Jay Carney said the United States would be "very vigilant" about revenge attacks.

Hours after the bombing, a U.S. drone aircraft fired missiles at a vehicle in North Waziristan on the Afghan border, killing five militants, Pakistani security officials said.

It was the fourth drone attack since bin Laden was killed, inflaming another sore issue between Pakistan and the United States. Pakistan officially objects to the attacks, saying they violate its sovereignty and feed public anger.

Military and intelligence chiefs gave parliament a closed-door briefing in which ISI chief Pasha told legislators he was ready to take responsibility for any criminal failing, Information Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan said.

"If any of our responsibility is determined and any gap identified, that our negligence was criminal negligence, and there was an intentional failure, then we are ready to face any consequences," Awan told Express TV, citing Pasha.

Another member of parliament said Pasha told the assembly he did not want to "hang around" if parliament deems him responsible. "I am ready to resign," Riaz Fatyana quoted the ISI chief as saying.

The spy chief also told parliament bin Laden had been isolated, Awan said. "We had already killed all his allies and so we had killed him even before he was dead. He was living like a dead man," Awan quoted Pasha as saying.

The chairman of Pakistan's joint chiefs of staff committee, General Khalid Shameem Wynne, canceled a five-day visit to the United States that had been set to begin on May 22.

"The visit could not be undertaken under existing circumstances," a military official told Reuters.

He did not elaborate, but the decision to cancel the visit came as the Cabinet defense committee said it was reviewing cooperation with the United States on counterterrorism.

U.S. officials are sifting through what they describe as a treasure trove of intelligence material seized in the raid on bin Laden's compound.

Officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, revealed on Friday that a stash of video pornography was found in the hideout there but said they did not know if bin Laden himself had acquired or viewed the material. [ID:nN13221495]

In addition, a senior U.S. lawmaker said he believes al Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri, is also in Pakistan. Mike Rogers, chairman of the House of Representatives intelligence committee, said in comments to be aired on the CBS program "60 Minutes" on Sunday that he hopes Pakistani officials will help the United States find him.

The White House also said President Barack Obama would lay out his vision for Middle East policy next Thursday, using bin Laden's death as a chance to recast the U.S. response to political upheaval in the Arab world. [ID:nN13237003]

Former U.S. President George W. Bush, who spent years searching in vain for bin Laden, described for the first time the call he received from Obama informing him that U.S. forces had killed the al Qaeda leader. [ID:nN13200227]

Bush said he was eating souffles at a Dallas restaurant when he got word Obama was trying to reach him.

"I excused myself and went home to take the call," Bush said. "Obama simply said, 'Osama bin Laden is dead.'" After Obama described the U.S. raid and the decision he made to go ahead with the mission, Bush said he told Obama, "Good call." (Additional reporting by Zeeshan Haider, Haji Mujtaba, Rebecca Conway, Augustine Anthony and Izaz Mohmand in Pakistan, Arshad Mohammed, Steve Holland, Mark Hosenball and Tabassum Zakaria in Washington; Writing by Will Dunham; Editing by Peter Cooney)