In a rare break among Islamic terrorist groups and countries that support them, the Pakistani Taliban has been roundly denounced for their attack on a school that left 132 children dead.
The Pakistani Taliban has been attempting to justify their attack by saying that the assault was revenge against the army for an offensive against the terrorist organization. The terrorists said their families had suffered losses, so it was right to kill the children of army members.
The spokesman for the Afghanistan branch of the Taliban condemned the attack as being against the basics of Islam.
“The intentional killing of innocent people, children and women is against the basics of Islam and this criteria has to be considered by every Islamic party and government,” Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement, according to Reuters.
The Iranian government also released a statement strongly condemning the terrorist action.
“This is a totally un-Islamic and inhumane act. Terrorism, extremism and endangering the lives of innocent people, in any form and with any objective, is condemned,” Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham told reporters.
Pakistan’s prime minister Nawaz Sharif says the government had tried to negotiate with the terror group but the talks broke down, leading to a military offensive against the group.
Islamist group the Taliban has killed over 100 children in an attack on a Pakstiani school in an attack that took hours. The assault was a revenge attack for the Nobel Peace Prize being given to Malala Yousafzai for her standing up to the Islamists.
The attack lasted over eight hours before Pakistani military was able to eliminate the last of the terrorists in Army Public School in Peshawar.
“The gunmen entered class by class and shot some kids one by one,” a student told local media.
The terrorists attacked around 11 a.m. local time when 500 students between grades one through ten were in the building.
“We were standing outside the school and firing suddenly started and there was chaos everywhere and the screams of children and teachers,” Jamshed Khan, a school bus driver, told NBC News.
Sources say that the terrorists killed one teacher by dousing them with gasoline and burning them alive while they forced the students to watch.
“Our suicide bombers have entered the school, they have instructions not to harm the children, but to target the army personnel,” Taliban spokesman Muhammad Umar Khorasani told Reuters.
A homicide bomber walked into an auditorium in Kabul, Afghanistan and set off his device killing a German man and wounding 16 people.
The crowd was watching a play that condemned terrorist homicide bombing attacks called “Heartbeat: Silence After the Explosion.” The head of the Interior Ministry said a 17-year-old boy walked into the play during an early evening performance to commit the attack.
“I heard a deafening explosion … There were Afghans, foreigners, young girls and young boys watching the show,” Sher Ahmad, an Afghan rights activist who was at the performance, told Reuters.
The Taliban said that they attacked the play because it was aimed “to insult Islamic values and spread propaganda about our jihad operations, especially on suicide attacks”.
The attack is the second homicide bombing terrorist attack in Kabul within a week. Six Afghani soldiers were killed when a terrorist hit their bus as they were heading to work.
The attacks are part of a nationwide campaign by the Taliban to strike at military and civilians, as most of the foreign military units would be leaving the country by the end of the month.
Islamic terrorists have killed a pastor from South Africa who felt a passion to help the Afghani people after the United States removed the Taliban.
Three terrorists with explosives on their chest stormed into the compound where Pastor Werner Geoenewald and his family have been living. The explosion killed Werner and his two children Jean-Pierre and Rode. The fire also destroyed all the family’s belongings leaving the mother Hannelie alone.
The children were 17 and 15. Hannelie survived because she had been working a nearby clinic at the time of the attack.
“Their house was burned down,” Hannelie’s sister Riana Du Plessis said on Sunday from South Africa. “Hannelie went back there this morning to try to recover some of their goods, but there was nothing to recover. She lost everything – her children, her husband, her cats, her dogs.”
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the murders saying they were out to kill Christians.
The Taliban attacked a British convoy on Thursday killing five people.
The homicide bomb attack focused on a vehicle from the British embassy and killed two embassy workers, one British and one Afghani.
The attack wounded at least 30 bystanders.
“I am deeply saddened to confirm that a British national civilian security team member and an Afghan national working for the embassy were killed in the incident,” Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said in a statement.
The blast was the first of the day. A second blast a few hours later struck at a compound run by a contractor for the U.S. aid agency in the country. It shook buildings throughout the diplomatic section of Kabul and was the start of an hour long shootout between terrorists and Afghani security forces.
A foreign national and two terrorists died in the second explosion.
There have been five major terrorist attacks by the Taliban this week.
The Taliban continues their campaign against women and children after four gunmen shot and killed at least two children in their latest terror attack.
Four members of the Islamic terrorist group walked into a restaurant at a hotel in Kabul, Afghanistan, pulled out pistols and began shooting diners in the head. Women and children appeared to be especially targeted by the terrorists.
Security officials were stunned the terrorists made their way into the Serena hotel, which is known for having some of the strongest security in Kabul. They discovered after searching the bodies of the terrorists that they had concealed the weapons inside their shoes.
The attack is part of a stepped up terror campaign ahead of April 5th elections in Afghanistan.
“Our people, if they decide to attack any place, can do it,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement claiming responsibility for the murders.
There may finally be an explanation why Afghani President Hamid Karzai has rejected all the recommendations from government officials to sign a new security deal with the United States and why he’s turned very anti-American in the last six months.
The New York Times reports that Karzai has been conducting secret talks with the Taliban to try and arrange a deal before he leaves office later this year.
Karzai has been refusing to sign a deal approved by tribal leaders that would leave some U.S. troops in the country past the end of 2014. The troops would provide training to the Afghan army and help in counterterrorism efforts.
It’s likely those counterterrorism efforts are what Karzai wants to stop.
Karzai has reportedly been secretly working with the Taliban since November. A spokesman for the president said that the talks are “very positive” and ongoing.
Karzai recently raised suspicious eyes from world leaders and observers after attempting to claim terrorist attacks by the Taliban were actually the work of the United States even after the Taliban claimed responsibility.
The Taliban attempted an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan on Christmas Day.
Two rockets struck the compound before dawn on Christmas Day. Officials at the Embassy report that no one was injured and there was no damage to consular buildings. A U.S. Embassy official called the rockets “indirect fire” in an apparent attempt to show the insignificance of the assault.
The Taliban immediately issued a claim of responsibility that said four rockets struck the compound and caused mass casualties despite the evidence showing the opposite.
The Taliban also detonated a bicycle bomb outside a restaurant in Puli Alam, killing 6 and wounding 13 including several children.
The Taliban has been ramping up attacks as the U.S. and other nations continue to withdraw troops before a deadline at the end of 2014 for all troops to leave the country.
The Pakistani Taliban announced they have chosen as their new leader the man who planned the assassination of a teenage girl.
Mullah Fazlullah, who designed a failed assassination attempt on schoolgirl activist Malala Yousafzai, was named the new leader by the Taliban’s leadership council.
Militants fired AK-47 assault rifles and anti-aircraft guns in the air to celebrate the decision.
Fazlullah replaces Hakimullah Mehsud who was killed in a U.S. drone strike on Friday. Fazlullah is considered a hard-liner and has already rejected any peace talks with the Pakistani government.
Fazlullah’s branch of the Taliban routinely blew up schools with children inside and banned women from being able to go outside without male accompaniment. They would force all men to grow beards or face Sharia law.
The Pakistani Taliban have confirmed that their leader has been killed as the result of a U.S. drone strike.
Hakimullah Mehsud, who masterminded the Taliban attack on a CIA base in Afghanistan and multiple missions that lead to the deaths of thousands of Pakistani civilians, died Saturday when he was targeted by a U.S. drone. Mehsud was also believed to be the plotter of the failed Times Square bombing in 2010.
The U.S. had a $5 million bounty on Mehsud’s head.
Pakistan’s government expressed outrage over the U.S. strike saying they were working on peace talks with the Taliban at the time of the strike. Government officials summoned the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan to government offices for protests. Pakistan’s interior minister said the death of Mehsud was “the death of all peace efforts” although he said they would not be breaking off relations with the U.S. because of the attack.
The Taliban has been meeting to decide on a new leader.
This is not the first time that Mehsud was reported to be killed in a drone strike, however, this is the first time the Taliban acknowledged that he had been killed.
