Two US nationals were among 11 injured in an attack on a US consulate convoy in Peshawar’s University Town area on Friday. Police said a car bomb had been detonated by remote control as the convoy passed, killing one passer-by. US embassy spokesman Alberto Rodriguez told Pakistan Today that a two-car convoy of the US consulate was coming back from University Town when the explosion occurred.
“One vehicle was damaged. There is no death among our personnel and there are no serious injuries,” he added. “Only one car was hit. US diplomats and a Pakistani driver were riding that vehicle,” he said, adding that two US government employees inside the car suffered “minor injuries”. The targeted vehicle was bombproof therefore its occupants remain safe in the high-intensity explosion heard across the city.
Capital City Police Chief Liaqat Ali Khan told reporters that a citizen riding a motorbike was killed and 11 others injured, including two US consulate employees who received minor injuries. “It was a car bomb with 50 kilogrammes of explosives. The car was already parked there on the road. It was exploded with a remote control,” he said. The bomb cracked the front wall of a nearby house and shattered the windows in others.
Witnesses told AFP that the armoured US consulate car skidded off the road after the blast, which happened at around 8:25am and smashed into an electricity pylon on a pedestrian footpath. Soon after the explosion, senior civil and police authorities rushed to the site and supervised rescue activities. To a question, the CCPO said, “The US diplomat squad’s activities couldn’t be restricted but they were advised to remain careful regarding their security.”
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan swiftly claimed responsibility, threatening further attacks against Western targets in telephone calls to AFP and indicating that the blast was to avenge the May 2 killing of Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden by US Navy SEALs. “Our first enemy is Pakistan, then the US and after that, other NATO countries,” said spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan.
“Osama was our leader and America is the biggest terrorist,” the spokesman said, adding, “We will inflict such losses that Americans would never forget.”
Taliban target US convoy in Peshawar
