Two suicide bombers target training centre in northwest Pakistan in assault Taliban claims is 'first of many' acts of vengeance
A double bomb attack on a military training centre in north-western Pakistan has killed at least 70 people in the first militant riposte since US troops killed Osama bin Laden 12 days ago.
The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing, which ripped through a crowd of recruits at the gates of a Frontier Corps base in Charsadda, 35 miles north of Peshawar.
"This is the retaliation for the killing of Osama bin Laden. Pakistani and US forces should be ready for more attacks," a Taliban spokesman told CNN.
Young recruits were boarding buses at the gates of the military academy at 6am, preparing to return home after a nine-month training course, when two suspected suicide bombers struck.
Some reports said the bombers were on motorbikes, others described a car. Two giant explosions shredded the white mini-vans, killing their occupants and scattering luggage across the market.
"There was a big blast," a fruit seller told the Associated Press. "I saw smoke, blood and body pieces all around."
At least 70 people – 65 of them military recruits – were killed and over 100 injured. The death toll is expected to rise.
It was the largest attack since a team of US Navy Seals stormed a suburban house in Abbottabad, killing Bin Laden and four other people in a dramatic raid that has triggered political turmoil inside Pakistan and a flurry of uncomfortable questions from the outside.
Pakistan's army is facing unprecedented criticism while politicians in Washington, including President Barack Obama, say they want to know how the al-Qaida leader stayed on the run in Pakistan for at least six years.
The army chief, General Ashfaq Kayani, is due to address a closed session of parliament to explain the circumstances around the controversial American raid.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani warned of a "trust deficit" between the US and Pakistan and said that cooperation between the CIA and Pakistan's ISI had broken down. "Traditionally the ISI worked with the CIA," he told Time magazine, but "what we're seeing is that there's no level of trust."
However, the tense relationship has shown some signs of resuscitation, with reports that US officials were allowed access to Bin Laden's three widows in Pakistani custody. The women were not co-operative.
Charsadda is close to Mohmand tribal agency, where the army recently launched a major offensive against the Taliban, the latest of a two-year battle to flush militants from the Afghanistan border area.
The Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force drawn mostly from the Pashtun tribes, are not fighting in Mohmand, but they have been targeted in numerous Taliban attacks across the north-west in recent years.
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/13/osama-bin-laden-revenge-pakistan-bombs
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