Taliban storm US consulate, attacks in Pak kill 46

Taliban militants, dressed in battle fatigues, on Monday made a brazen attempt to storm the US consulate in this northwest Pakistani city with car bombs and grenades as a suicide bomber unleashed carnage at a rally near here killing a total of 46 people.



While 43 people were killed and over 100 others injured in the suicide bombing in Timergara in lower Dir, three others, including a policeman, lost their lives in the attack targeting the American consulate.



Six heavily-armed attackers came in two cars and raked two security check posts of the consulate with gunfire as a series of grenade explosions rocked the cantonment area where the premises is located before they were gunned down by the security forces.



"The target was certainly the American consulate but they didn't succeed in getting there," a police official said as senior provincial minister Bashir Bilour asserted that the "militants were well-equipped and it was a well-organised attack." The attackers were carrying a large amount of explosives and several suicide jackets which were defused by security personnel, Bilour said. One policeman was killed, he said.