News / Pakistan

Blast kills 2 local US consulate employees in Pakistan's Peshawar

Tuesday, 01 March 2016 7:20 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 01 March 2016 7:19 PM ]

Pakistani forces guard the US Consulate in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

A powerful bomb explosion has claimed the lives of at least two local employees of the US consulate and several Pakistani army soldiers in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday that they were killed in an explosion while out on an anti-narcotics mission in the troubled region.

The top US diplomat added that several Pakistani soldiers also died in the blast involving an improvised explosive device (IED).

"Just this morning I woke to the news that we have lost two local employees in Peshawar who worked with our consulate there who were going out on an effort to eradicate narcotics fields," Kerry said at an event in Washington, DC, adding, "An IED exploded and several were lost. A few of the soldiers who were there to guard them also."

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but the blast took place in a region where the Pakistani military has recently stepped up its offensive against militants.

Peshawar has been the scene of numerous attacks perpetrated by members of pro-Taliban militant groups.

Pakistani soldiers pose for photographs alongside seized automatic weapons as they are displayed for media in Peshawar on January 27, 2016. (AFP photo)

Pakistan’s army has intensified military operations against the militants since pro-Taliban elements killed over 150 people, most of them children, in an armed assault on a school in Peshawar in December 2014.

According to Pakistani officials, more than 3,600 pro-Taliban militants have been killed since the army intensified military operations following the school massacre. The military claims it has now cleared 90 percent of the region.

At least 358 soldiers have also lost their lives during the ongoing fight against militancy.

Thousands of Pakistanis have lost their lives in bombings and other militant attacks since 2001, when Pakistan entered an alliance with the US in the so-called war on terror. Thousands more have been displaced by the wave of violence and militancy sweeping across the country.

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