Taliban claim responsibility for school bus attack

PESHAWAR, Pakistan?? Gunmen opened fire on a school bus in the Pakistani city of Peshawar on Tuesday, killing four children and the driver, a police official said.

Pakistan's Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying the children on the bus were from a pro-government tribe.

"First a rocket was fired but it didn't hit. Then gunmen opened fire," said Sahibzada Sajjad, deputy superintendent of police in Peshawar.

Eighteen people, including 15 children, were wounded.

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The wounded were treated at Peshawar's Lady Reading Hospital, where the children lay in beds with shrapnel and bullet wounds, their uniforms soaked in blood.

"We were in the van, going home like every day. Suddenly I heard an explosion and gunfire," said 8-year-old Sabir.

Police said the shooting occurred near the Khyber Model School, which employed the bus.

Story: Taliban attacks US Embassy, NATO and government buildings in Kabul

Al-Qaida have suffered several setbacks since U.S. special forces killed Osama bin Laden in a secret raid in Pakistan on May 2.

But their allies in the Pakistani Taliban, who vowed to avenge his death, have carried out a series of high-profile attacks.

They are waging a campaign of mostly suicide bombings in a bid to topple the U.S.-backed government.

Kidnap plot
Interior Minister Rehman Malik said last week that the Taliban were planning to kidnap senior Pakistani officials to pressure authorities to release relatives of bin Laden detained after his death.

Bin Laden's wives and several of his children are being held by authorities in the South Asian nation.

The Pakistani Taliban are holding more than 20 teenage tribesmen hostage in an area straddling the border with Afghanistan and have demanded the release of scores of prisoners and an end to tribal elders' support of offensives against them.

The teens, from Pakistan's northwestern Bajaur tribal region, were abducted by the militants on August 31 while they were on an outing in Afghanistan's border province of Kunar.

Elsewhere in Pakistan, the bodies of two young men were found with a note saying they were killed by the Pakistani Taliban for spying on one of its commanders.

They were found in their home village of Pahar Khel in the northwest Lakki Marwat district, said police officer Syed Khan. They had been shot.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44498247/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/

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