TTP threatens more husband-and-wife bombings

Taliban claim married Uzbek couple carried out attack in DI Khan, says will target security forces using more couples.

MIRANSHAH: The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed on Monday that a married Uzbek couple carried out a suicide attack on the police station in Dera Ismail Khan at the weekend and threatened further husband-and-wife bombings.

It was the first claim of its kind and only the second time that police confirmed a woman blew herself up.

Ten policemen were killed on Saturday when Taliban militants in burqas attacked the police station near South Waziristan.

"We sent a husband and wife," Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told AFP, identifying them as "Uzbek nationals".

"We have several such couples and we will keep on targeting security forces in Afghanistan and Pakistan until the doors of oppression are shut."

Officials had said six attackers were killed after a squad of fighters armed with guns and hand grenades, and disguised in burqas, attacked Kolachi police station and took a group of policemen hostage.

"According to information from our intelligence sources, the bombers were husband and wife but we don't have any substantial information to prove that at the moment," police official Imtiaz Shah told AFP.

"The heads of the two bombers we have found show that they were not Pakistani," he added.

As in practically all claims of responsibility since US forces killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan on May 2, the Taliban said they were avenging his death.

"We sent one male and one female suicide bomber to participate in the attack because we want to liberate our people from the slavery of America," spokesman Ehsan told AFP.

The Taliban have claimed a series of high-profile attacks on government security forces across the country since US Navy SEALs killed the al Qaeda chief in Abbottabad.