Taliban claims blast that killed 2 local US employees in Pakistan
A faction of Taliban has claimed responsibility for a roadside bombing that killed at least two local employees of a US consulate in the troubled northwestern Pakistan.
The Jamaat-ur-Ahrar faction of the Pakistani Taliban said in a statement on Wednesday that it detonated the remote-controlled explosive device on Tuesday in the volatile Mohmand Agency, which is located about 170 km (105 miles) from the capital Islamabad.
"Jamaat-ur-Ahrar's mujahideen carried out a remote-controlled bomb attack that sent a FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) secretariat employee and his driver to hell," the statement read.
The US State Department earlier confirmed that Faisal Khan and Abid Shah, two local employees of the US consulate, were killed while on a drug eradication mission.
Khan was identified as the most senior Pakistani employee at the US Consulate in Peshawar and Shah was identified as security specialist.
Peshawar and its surrounding regions have been the scene of numerous attacks perpetrated by members of pro-Taliban militant groups.
In recent months, Taliban militants have launched a series of deadly attacks against the government forces and civilians across the troubled northwestern region.
On February 18, Taliban militants shot dead at least nine Pakistani security forces personnel in two separate attacks across the same volatile tribal region near the Afghan border.
Also on January 20, four militants launched a deadly assault on Bacha Khan University campus in Charsadda District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, killing more than 20 people.
Pakistan’s army has intensified military operations against the militants since pro-Taliban elements killed over 150 people, most of them children, in an armed assault on a school in Peshawar in December 2014.
According to Pakistani officials, more than 3,600 pro-Taliban militants have been killed since the army intensified military operations following the school massacre. The military claims it has now cleared 90 percent of the region. At least 358 soldiers have also lost their lives during the ongoing fight against militancy.
Thousands of Pakistanis have lost their lives in bombings and other militant attacks since 2001, when Pakistan entered an alliance with the US in the so-called war on terror.
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