Six Pakistani Taliban attacked a school in NW Pakistan this morning (10am local time), killing more than 125 people, at least 100 of them children between 12-16. There is no excuse and no justification for such an atrocity.
Gunfire was exchanged hours later, with hundreds of students trapped inside, before the six assailants were killed or blew themselves up. The Army Public School and Degree College is in Peshawar, about 75 miles from Islamabad. Many of the students are children of military personnel.
One eyewitness saw at five or six heavily-armed men entering each classroom and beating or killing children.
The gunmen entered after scaling a wall at the rear of the main school building. They opened fire and took dozens of students hostage in the main auditorium of the building.
A spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack and said that it was in retaliation to the military’s offensive against militant hide-outs in the North Waziristan tribal region. The Pakistani military carried out an offensive, known as Operation Zarb-e-Azb, in June and has claimed to have cleared 90 percent of the restive region that has long been a redoubt of local and foreign militants. ...
There were unconfirmed news reports that at least three gunmen had been killed, as well as a suicide bomber who had detonated his explosives. ...
The military says that at least 1,800 militants have been killed in Operation Zarb-e-Azb and that the terrorists remain on the run.
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