Source: DTN News / AFP By Lehaz Ali
(NSI News Source Info) PESHAWAR, Pakistan - April 5, 2010: Islamist militants armed with guns, grenades and suicide car bombs targeted the US consulate in Pakistan's northwestern capital and a political rally, killing 46 people on Monday.The attacks in quick succession were among the deadliest so far this year in nuclear-armed Pakistan, where insecurity has raised concerns in the United States as Washington steps up the fight in Afghanistan and against Al-Qaeda.
A Pakistani journalist walks next to damaged armored vehicle at the site of suicide bombing near the U.S. consulate in Peshawar, Pakistan on Monday, April 5, 2010. Islamist militants attacked the consulate in northwest Pakistan with car bombs and grenades Monday, killing three people.
Pakistan's Taliban claimed responsibility for the consulate attack, claiming it was to avenge a US drone war targeting top militants in Pakistan's border areas with Afghanistan, and threatened further assaults on Americans.
That heavily-armed militants managed to approach the US mission, underscored the potency of their threat despite stepped up Pakistani offensives and US drone attacks focused on Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked commanders.
Five security officials were killed when at least eight militants armed with guns, grenades and two car bombs targeted the heavily guarded US consulate in Peshawar, a city of 2.5 million on the edge of Pakistan's lawless tribal belt.
The United States condemned the attack and expressed "great concern", saying at least two Pakistani security guards employed by the consulate were killed and a number of others seriously wounded, but that no Americans died.
"We strongly condemn the violence," said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, adding that attacks killing Pakistanis had previously strengthened Islamabad's determination to battle militants.
"Militancy and extremism have been the greatest threat to our national security in recent times. I assure you we will fight militancy to the finish," Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari told parliament on Monday.
Police said two car bombs exploded -- at a checkpoint 50 metres (yards) from the mission and the second laden with about 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of explosives close to the consulate gate, followed by an exchange of fire.
North West Frontier Province information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain told reporters that five security officials and six militants were killed.
The security barrier near the US consulate gate was damaged, and shells from rocket-propelled grenades and hand grenades were left lying in the area, which was sealed off by Pakistani police and army, witnesses said.
Although the precise number of assailants was unclear, Bashir Ahmad Bilour, a provincial cabinet minister, said two militants fled during the cross fire.
US missile strikes have killed more than 860 people since August 2008 in Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal belt, surging under President Barack Obama as he steps up efforts to end the war in neighbouring Afghanistan.
"We accept the attacks on the American consulate. This is revenge for drone attacks," Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan spokesman Azam Tariq told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location.
"We will carry out more such attacks. We will target any place where there are Americans," he said.
Peshawar lies on the edge of Pakistan's tribal belt -- branded by Washington a global headquarters of Al-Qaeda.
Around 3,200 people have been killed in suicide and bomb attacks over the last three years in Pakistan, blamed on militants opposed to the US alliance. Chronology: Recent attacks in Pakistan
On Monday, a suicide bomber attacked a rally in the northwest district of Lower Dir, where Pakistan waged a major offensive against local Taliban insurgents last year before switching its operations to the tribal belt.
"People were dancing and some were beating drums when suddenly there was a powerful explosion," Iqbal Akbar, a shopkeeper told AFP from his bed in Peshawar's main Lady Reading hospital.
"It felt like someone thrust a hot iron rod into my shoulder. I fell on the ground and a severed hand fell on my chest," he said.
Qazi Jamil, police chief for the northwestern region of Malakand, told AFP that 41 people were killed and 82 wounded in a suicide car bomb attack.
The Awami National Party (ANP) said it organised the meeting to celebrate plans to rename North West Frontier Province -- Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, as laid out in a package of constitutional reform being debated in the federal parliament.
The new name honours the Pashtun-majority population in the province, replaces a name that dates back to British colonial rule and is part of efforts to devolve greater authority to the provinces.
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