Pakistan Taliban bomb US consulate convoy in Peshawar

The Pakistani Taliban have bombed a US consulate convoy in Peshawar, killing one Pakistani and wounding 10 others.

It is unclear if the dead person was a bomber or a passer-by. Two Americans in one vehicle were slightly injured.

The US embassy said the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber on a motorbike. Earlier, Pakistani police had said it was a roadside bomb.

It is the first attack on US interests since US forces killed Osama Bin Laden in the town of Abbottabad on 2 May.

The US embassy said two armoured vehicles were driving in convoy when the bomb went off. It said that no high-level officials were travelling in the cars at the time.

"One vehicle was damaged. There is no death among our personnel and there are no serious injuries," a US embassy spokesman said.

The Pakistani Taliban said the bombing was to avenge Bin Laden's death.

"The diplomatic staff of all Nato countries are our targets," Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan said. "We will continue such attacks. Pakistan is our first target, and America is our second."

There have been a number of militant attacks in Pakistan since Bin Laden was killed. The deadliest was last Friday when a twin suicide bombing killed more than 80 people, most of them paramilitary recruits, in the country's north-west.

US consulate staff in Peshawar have been targeted in the past. In August 2008, one of the diplomats at the consulate survived an attack on her armoured vehicle.

The US closed its missions around Pakistan immediately after Bin Laden was killed, but reopened them within days.

source : bbc.co.uk