The Taliban launches another attack on Peshawar, even as they ask to return to the truce they failed to observe in the first place, so they can regroup and fail to observe it some more. “Bombs, gun battle, rock Pakistan’s Peshawar,” by Alamgir Bitani for Reuters, May 28:
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) — Two bombs exploded in a market in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar on Thursday, killing six people, and gunmen on rooftops ambushed police as they arrived at the scene.
Militant violence in nuclear-armed Pakistan, an important U.S. ally, has surged since mid-2007, with attacks on the security forces, as well as on government and Western targets, and the Taliban threatened more on Thursday.
Pakistan is vital for U.S. plans to defeat al Qaeda and cut support for the Afghan Taliban, and the United States has been heartened by a military offensive against the Taliban in their Swat bastion, northwest of Islamabad.
But there have been eight militant attacks since the army began battling militants in the region in April, and there is a danger the violence could erode public support for the campaign.
Shortly after the bombs exploded in Peshawar, a suicide bomber attacked a paramilitary post in another part of the city, killing three soldiers, a hospital official said. A wounded soldier said earlier five comrades had been killed.
The attacks came hours after the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for a suicide car-bomb and gun attack in the city of Lahore on Wednesday that killed 24 people, saying it was revenge for the Swat offensive.
“We were looking for this target for a long time,” Hakimullah Mehsud, a commander loyal to Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, said by telephone.
In Peshawar, the two bombs were planted on motorbikes in the Storytellers Bazaar in the old city and caused extensive damage. Six people were killed and about 70 wounded, provincial government minister Bashir Ahmed Bilour told Reuters.
Soon afterward, gunmen on rooftops began firing at police in lanes below. Television showed policemen firing back while colleagues strapped on bullet-proof vests. Police later said two gunmen had been killed and two suspects detained. […]
The military released on Wednesday what it said was a tape of an intercepted telephone call between the Taliban spokesman in Swat, Muslim Khan, and an unidentified militant in which Khan says soldiers should be attacked.
“Strikes should be carried out on their homes so their kids get killed and then they’ll realize,” Khan said on the tape, which was broadcast by media.
The unidentified man on the tape said orders had gone out to strike wherever possible….