— A Taliban car bomb struck an armored vehicle taking American government employees to the U.S consulate in northwest Pakistan on Friday in a strike the militants said was to avenge the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
A Pakistani passer-by was killed and two Americans suffered minor injuries in the attack in the city of Peshawar, officials said. At least 10 other Pakistanis were wounded. The strike was the first on Westerners since the May 2 U.S. commando raid on bin Laden’s hide-out in an army town around three hours from Peshawar.
The Pakistani Taliban, an al-Qaeda-allied group behind scores of attacks in recent years, claimed responsibility.
“We say to the Americans and NATO that we will carry out more deadly attacks and we can do it,” Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan said in a phone call from an undisclosed location. “We had warned that we will avenge the martyrdom of Osama.”
The Americans were traveling in two cars from their homes to the heavily protected consulate building when a car bomb exploded nearby, said U.S. Embassy spokesman Alberto Rodriguez and police in the city. The Americans in the car that was hit were whisked away from the scene in the second vehicle. The most serious injury was a possible broken hand, he said.
Rodriguez had initially said Friday’s attack was carried out by a suicide bomber, based on accounts from witnesses. He later called The Associated Press to say it was a planted explosive device of some kind. Pakistani police said it was a car bomb, presumably detonated remotely.
Rodriguez declined to say what job the Americans held. The consulate is home to diplomats, security contractors and — it is widely believed — CIA staff hunting al-Qaeda and associated groups. Both the consulate building and a previous top officer there have been attacked in the past.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said U.S. diplomatic security agents were assisting Pakistani authorities in investigating the attack.
The U.S. raid that killed bin Laden in Abbottabad badly damaged Pakistani-American relations already frayed since January, when a CIA contractor killed two Pakistanis in the city of Lahore. That incident prompted Pakistan to demand a reduction in U.S. military personnel in the country, and infuriated the Pakistani army over what it claims are American spies operating in the country.
Peshawar lies just outside Pakistan’s tribal regions, where al-Qaeda and the Taliban have bases.
The city has witnessed many of the suicide and other bombings that have scarred Pakistan over the past five years, the vast majority against Pakistani government and security force targets. Foreigners in Pakistan have also been targeted, but not nearly as much.
Last week, the Pakistani Taliban killed more than 80 Pakistani recruits for a paramilitary border force in double suicide attacks close to Peshawar. They said those blasts were also in revenge for the death of bin Laden.
