Attacks to 'avenge' al-Qaida arrests
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A policeman assists Mohammad Azam, 56, injured at the site of a double suicide bombing in Quetta, Pakistan, on Wednesday. Two suicide bombers targeting a senior security official struck near government offices in the southwestern Pakistani city, killing at least 24 people, a police official said. Naseer Ahmed / Reuters |
MIRANSHAH, Pakistan - The Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for twin suicide bombs in Quetta on Wednesday that killed at least 24 people, saying they were to avenge the arrests of al-Qaida operatives.
"We carried out the attacks," Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told AFP in a phone call from an undisclosed location.
He said the two bombs, which also wounded 82 people, were "to avenge the arrest of our mujahedin brothers by Pakistani security forces in Quetta recently".
Asked whether he was referring to the arrests, announced on Monday, of Younis al-Mauritani - believed to be a senior al-Qaida leader who had planned attacks abroad - and two others, he said "Yes".
"We will launch a bigger attack in future," Ehsan said.
Pakistan said on Monday that its forces had arrested al-Mauritani, described as a senior al-Qaida leader believed to have been responsible for planning attacks on the United States, Europe and Australia.
He was picked up in the suburbs of Quetta - the main town in southwestern Baluchistan Province, bordering Afghanistan and Iran - along with two other high-ranking operatives after the US and Pakistani spy agencies joined forces.
The twin suicide bombs on Wednesday targeted Pakistan's paramilitary force, the Frontier Corps which was responsible for the capture of the al-Qaida operatives, police said.
One attacker detonated his bomb-laden car outside the residence of the deputy chief of the Frontier Corps in Quetta city, before a second attacker blew himself up inside the house, said senior police official Hamid Shakil.
Agence France-Presse
