Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan vow attacks on West

TTP deputy leader says militant group has selected 10 US, British and French targets to avenge death of Bin Laden.


Reuters June 27, 2011

ISLAMABAD: The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a close ally of al Qaeda, has threatened to carry out a series of attacks against American, British and French targets to avenge the death of Osama bin Laden.

"Soon you will see attacks against America and NATO countries, and our first priorities in Europe will be France and Britain," deputy TTP leader Wali-ur-Rehman said in a videotape aired on Al Arabiya network over the weekend.

The video showed Rehman flanked by armed followers walking through rough mountain terrain. He sits on a blanket beside a sniper's rifle on a hilltop and explains the TTP's plans.

"We selected 10 targets to avenge the death of Bin Laden," said Rehman, a former teacher who the Pakistani media have described as more sober and experienced than other TTP leaders.

Rehman, also seen firing a machinegun into the distance in the video, did not elaborate.

But he said the first revenge operation was the Taliban siege of PNS Mehran naval base in Karachi last month.

Rehman has pledged allegiance to Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, and repeated that pledge on the tape.

The TTP regards the Pakistan army as a US puppet.

It has kept the government on the defensive since Bin Laden's death, staging suicide bombings, large-scale attacks on security forces with large numbers of fighters, and employing new tactics.

A Taliban militant and his wife carried out a weekend shooting and suicide bombing on a police station that killed 12 policemen.

The Pakistani and Afghan Taliban move easily across the porous frontier and provide each other with shelter and intelligence, complicating efforts to root out militancy in the region US President Barack Obama has described as "the most dangerous place in the world".

The TTP is blamed for many of the suicide bombings across the country and remains highly dangerous despite a series of army offensives against its strongholds in the northwest on the Afghan border.

It has not demonstrated an ability to stage sophisticated attacks in the West, however.

The TTP's one apparent bid to inflict carnage in the United States failed. The group claimed responsibility for the botched car bomb attack in New York's Times Square last year.

But American intelligence agencies take it seriously. It was later added to the United States' list of foreign terrorist organisations.

COMMENTS (8)

Mirza | 12 years ago | Reply @Bangash: I agree with your comment. However, you are too soft on these criminals, murderers, and terrorists by calling them, wacko. Thanks and regards, Mirza
observer | 12 years ago | Reply @AK TTP are basically stooges of the CIA. But, then why did Hakimullah Mehsud stage a suicide attack on the CIA station in Afghanistan? Please also note that the source quoted below is a 'patriotic Pakistani' one. http://www.defence.pk/forums/u-s-foreign-affairs/43967-lessons-we-must-learn-bombing-cia-station.html
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