Twin bombing attacks kill 80 outside Pakistan paramilitary training center

Twin bombings outside a paramilitary training center in Pakistan’s northwest killed least 70, in what appeared to be militants’ first major retaliatory attack since the death of Osama bin Laden.

[additional-authors]

Jewish Journal

May 13, 2011

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Pakistani Taliban militants claimed responsibility on Friday for a suicide bomb attack on paramilitary academy in a northwestern town that killed at least 80 people.

“It’s the first revenge for the martyrdom of … bin Laden. There will be more,” Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said by telephone from an undisclosed location.

U.S. forces killed bin Laden in his hideout in a Pakistani town on May 2.

A suicide bomber reportedly detonated at least one of the blasts at the main gate of the facility for the Frontier Constabulary, a poorly equipped but front-line force in Pakistan’s battle against al-Qaida and allied Islamist groups close to the Afghan border. Like other branches of Pakistan security forces, it has received U.S. funding.