Militants bombed a US consulate convoy in Peshawar on Friday, killing one person and wounding 11 others in the first attack on Americans in Pakistan since Osama bin Laden’s death.
A US embassy spokesman said no US personnel were seriously wounded in the rush-hour attack.
Police said two foreigners were lightly wounded. One of two armoured vehicles was damaged by what a bomb disposal official said was 50 kilos of low-grade explosives packed into a car and detonated by remote-control.
“Two vehicles of the US consulate were on their way to the consulate when they were attacked,” US embassy spokesman Alberto Rodriguez told AFP.
“One vehicle was damaged. There is no death among our personnel and there are no serious injuries,” he added.
“Only one car was hit. In that car there were US citizen diplomats and a Pakistani driver,” he said.
Witnesses said the US consulate car skidded off the road after the blast, which happened at around 8:25 am (0325 GMT), and smashed into an electricity pylon on a pedestrian footpath.
Senior officer Liaquat Ali said a local man riding on a motorbike was killed and 11 others wounded, including two foreigners, although not seriously.
He said that the two foreigners received “minor injuries.”
The bomb gouged a foot-deep crater out of the roadside, cracked the front wall of a nearby house and shattered the windows in two others, said an AFP reporter on the scene.
A private car was partially damaged and the motorbike of the person who was killed was flung about 12 feet (four metres) from the blast site.
Hukam Khan, in charge of the bomb disposal squad in Peshawar, said that 50 kilos of explosives were planted in a car before being detonated.
“They were not good quality explosives, that’s why there was relatively little damage,” he told AFP.
The Pakistani Taliban swiftly claimed responsibility, in a telephone call to AFP, and threatened further attacks against Western targets.
“Our first enemy is Pakistan, then the United States and after that, other NATO countries,” said spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan.
The United States leads a NATO force of around 130,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan that is trying to put down a 10-year Taliban insurgency. Pakistani logistical and military support is considered vital to the war effort.
“Our men have penetrated all Pakistani cities and we will launch more such attacks in the future,” Ehsan said.
Friday’s attack came exactly a week after the Taliban claimed a devastating bomb attack that killed 98 people outside a police training centre as the first revenge for bin Laden’s death.
One day earlier, US special envoy Marc Grossman held talks with leadership in Islamabad, stepping up efforts to smooth over a crisis sparked by the US Navy SEALs raid on May 2.
