At least 120 people have been killed, an estimated 100 of them children, in a Taliban attack on a school in Peshawar, Pakistan. CNN reports that the school compound was attacked by six militant “suicide bombers,” while the New York Times describes “at least five heavily armed Taliban gunmen.” The attackers are now all dead, CNN says. Many of the parents of students at the school that was attacked—the Army Public School—are members of the Pakistani armed forces, which this summer carried out an offensive operation in nearby North Waziristan. From Reuters:
“We selected the army’s school for the attack because the government is targeting our families and females,” said Taliban spokesman Muhammad Umar Khorasani. “We want them to feel the pain.”
It was not clear whether some or all of the children were killed by gunmen, suicide bombs or in the ensuing battle with Pakistani security forces trying to gain control of the building.
The attack appears to be the deadliest incident of mass violence in Pakistan since at least 2007.
