4 Threat Matrix: Taliban take credit for Shangla and Army GHQ attacks

Written by Bill Roggio on October 13, 2009 11:01 AM to 4 Threat Matrix

Available online at: http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix/archives/2009/10/taliban_takes_credit_for_shang.php

The Taliban have taken credit for the Shangla suicide attack against a military convoy as well as the assault on the Army General Headquarters in Rawalpindi. Dawn reports on the Taliban taking credit for the Shangla attack:

A boy aged about 13 and wearing a suicide vest threw himself at a military convoy passing through a Alpuri town on Monday, the latest in a wave of attacks that have killed 125 people in Pakistan in eight days, officials said.

'We claim responsibility for the Shangla suicide attack. This is revenge for our martyrs,' Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq told an AFP reporter by telephone from an undisclosed location.

'This is part of the series of attacks that we are carrying out. Wait and see more,' he added.

The feared Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) group have vowed to avenge the death of their leader Baitullah Mehsud in a US missile strike in the lawless northwest tribal region of South Waziristan on August 5.

While the Taliban gloat over their barbaric attacks, the Pakistani government and military are still talking about considering discussing the possibility of issuing orders to provide for a principled decision to launch an offensive against Hakeemullah Mehsud's faction of the Taliban in South Waziristan.

The only action taken so far has been to round up Afghans in Peshawar and launch airstrikes in South Waziristan and Bajaur. This weak response will only encourage further attacks and serve to erode the morale of the military.