A suicide assault team from the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan (or Pakistani Taliban) stormed a military high school in Peshawar today. It is one of the deadliest jihadist attacks in the country's history. According to initial reporting, the attackers have killed more than 140 people, including scores of children.
At least nine Taliban fighters armed with assault weapons and suicide vests entered the Army Public School in Peshawar, the capital of the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, this morning. The fighters fanned out through the school and killed everyone in their path, according to press reports.
Shahrukh Khan, a child who survived the attack by feigning death after being shot in both legs, told Agence France Presse (AFP) that the Taliban fighters were instructed to kill the students. The terrorists deliberately executed students who were already wounded.
"There are so many children beneath the benches, go and get them," one Taliban fighter told another, according to Khan.
"The man with big boots kept on looking for students and pumping bullets into their bodies. I lay as still as I could and closed my eyes, waiting to get shot again," Khan stated. The fighters shouted "Allahu Akbar," or Allah is greatest, as they executed the children.
Pakistani officials have stated that 132 student and nine teachers have been killed, but warned that the death toll may rise, Reuters reported.
At least 15 explosions were heard during the fighting, Dawn reported. Pakistani security forces surrounded the building and assaulted as the Taliban continued to execute students and staff. The military claimed it killed nine Taliban fighters, but more may have been involved in the attack. Troops are still searching the building for Taliban fighters and survivors.
Muhammad Khurasani, the official spokesman for the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, claimed the gruesome assault and admitted that his fighters intentionally targeted civilians.
"We selected the army's school for the attack because the government is targeting our families and females," Khurasani said, according to Reuters. "We want them to feel the pain." Khurasani is referring to the current Pakistani military operation in the tribal agencies of North Waziristan and Khyber, which are adjacent to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The Pakistani military is targeting the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan and jihadist organizations such as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, but is leaving groups such as the Haqqani Network and the Hafiz Gul Bahadar Group alone.
The Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan has targeted military high school students in the past. In 2009, the jihadist group kidnapped hundreds of students as they fled their military school in Ramzak, North Waziristan. The Taliban ultimately released the students as part of a prisoner exchange.
The Taliban has also launched numerous attacks on soft targets such as churches, mosques, shrines, markets, hotels, and even hospitals. Thousands of civilians have been killed in those attacks since the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan was formed in late 2006.
The Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan has also plotted against the US. In an email first sent to The Long War Journal, the group claimed responsibility for the May 2010 attempted bombing in New York City's Times Square. [See LWJ report, Pakistani Taliban claim credit for failed NYC Times Square car bombing.]
The US has targeted the organization's top commanders as part of its drone campaign. Baitullah Mehsud, the group's founder and first leader, was killed by an American missile in August 2009. In late 2013, Baitullah's successor, Hakeemullah Mehsud, was also killed in an American airstrike. Hakeemullah had gloated over the failed Times Square attack in the group's propaganda prior to his demise.
Hakeemullah was replaced by Mullah Fazlullah, but his appointment as emir of the Pakistani Taliban proved to be unpopular within the terrorist group's ranks. Earlier this year, key constituencies that were part of Baitullah's original coalition began peeling away to go on their own. Much of the group founded by Baitullah no longer answers to Fazlullah. One of the larger blocs to break away from Fazlullah's leadership has rebranded itself as the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan Jamaat-ul-Ahrar. Other commanders have reportedly pledged their allegiance to Islamic State emir Abu Bakr al Baghdadi.
[For more on the dissolution of the original Pakistani Taliban alliance, see LWJ report: Discord dissolves Pakistani Taliban coalition.]