A group of gunmen attacked a police academy and rampaged through it for hours Monday, throwing grenades, seizing hostages and killing at least 11 officers before being overpowered by Pakistani security forces in armored vehicles and helicopters, authorities said.
Six militants were arrested and eight others were killed in the eight-hour battle to retake the facility on the outskirts of this city in eastern Pakistan, said Rao Iftikhar, a top government official in Punjab province.
Officials said more than 90 officers were wounded by the attackers, some of whom wore police uniforms.
The highly coordinated attack underscored the threat that militancy poses to the U.S.-allied, nuclear-armed country and prompted Pakistan's top civilian security official to say that militant groups were "destabilizing the country."
These jihadis don't want to live in peace. When will Pakistanis finally realize that they cannot make a deal with the Devil?
UPDATE: The Taliban aren't shy about taking "credit" for the attack--and threatening us:
The commander of the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility Tuesday for a deadly assault on a Pakistani police academy and said the group was planning a terrorist attack on Washington that would "amaze" the world.
Baitullah Mehsud, who has a $5 million bounty on his head from the U.S., said Monday's attack outside the eastern city of Lahore was in retaliation for U.S. missile strikes against militants along the Afghan border.
"Soon we will launch an attack in Washington that will amaze everyone in the world," Mehsud told The Associated Press by phone. He provided no details.
I guess he's not one of those "non-threatening" Taliban. If the threat (or is it an enemy "contingency"?) is true, it would kind of kill the notion that ony al Qaeda is a threat to us and not the Taliban. Heck, just the threat alone should tell us something.
