Taleban bomber attacks US vehicles in Pakistan

Two Americans suffered minor injuries, but one Pakistani passer-by was killed and at least 10 others were wounded in the attack in the city of Peshawar, officials said. The strike was the first on Westerners since the May 2 raid by American commandos on Bin Laden's hideout in an army town around three hours from Peshawar.

The Pakistani Taleban, an Al-Qaeda-allied group behind scores of attacks in recent years, claimed responsibility.

"We say to the Americans and NATO that we will carry out more deadly attacks and we can do it," Taleban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan said in a phone call from an undisclosed location. "We had warned that we will avenge the martyrdom of Osama." The Americans were traveling in two cars from their homes to the heavily protected consulate building when the bomber on a motorbike struck one of the vehicles, said US

Embassy spokesman Alberto Rodriguez. The Americans from the hit car were whisked away from the scene in the second vehicle. The most serious wound was a possible broken hand, he said.

Pakistani police's initial reports contradicted Rodriguez's account by suggesting it was a car bomb, and made no mention of a suicide attacker. But the police were still investigating.

Rodriguez declined to say what job the Americans held. The consulate is home to diplomats, security contractors and - it is widely believed - CIA staff hunting Al-Qaeda and associated groups. Both the consulate building and a previous top officer there have been attacked in the past.

Peshawar lies just outside Pakistan's tribal regions, where Al-Qaeda and the Taleban have bases.

The city has witnessed many of the suicide and other bombings that have scarred Pakistan over the past five years, the vast majority against Pakistani government and security force targets. Foreigners in Pakistan have also been targeted, but not nearly as much; Kazinform cites Arab News.

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