Peshawar: Authorities say a barrage of rockets has killed two civilians in Pakistan's northwestern Peshawar city and militants launched an attack on a paramilitary base nearby.
The paramilitary Frontier Corps released a statement on Tuesday saying a group of militants attacked one of their outposts in Basai, outside Peshawar, before dawn on Tuesday, several hours after the rockets hit. It says three militants were killed in a gunbattle.
No one claimed responsibility for the attacks. Peshawar is close to the tribal areas where Taliban militants are based.
The Pakistani Taliban has vowed retaliation against the government for what it claims are false reports of the death of its leader, Baitullah Mehsud, in a CIA missile attack last week.
A barrage of rockets hit a residential area of Pakistan's northwestern Peshawar city in a brazen pre-dawn attack Tuesday, killing two civilians and wounding 10 others, police said.
At least 12 rockets landed in the city, capital of North West Frontier Province, and one damaged the office of the paramilitary forces, police official Nisar Khan said.
Residents ran from their homes in panic when the first rocket landed in Peshawar shortly after 0100 hrs (local time) on Tuesday. Subsequently, 11 others were also fired from different directions and one struck a home, Khan said.
Rocket attacks are extremely rare in Pakistan's cities, although Taliban militants often target security outposts in the countryside with heavy weapons.
"It is an act of terrorism, but we don't know who the attackers were," Khan told The Associated Press, adding the paramilitary Frontier Corps building was damaged but no one was injured. He said all the dead and wounded were civilians.
The Pakistani Taliban has vowed retaliation against the government for what it claims are false reports of the death of its leader, Baitullah Mehsud, in a CIA missile attack last week. Pakistani and US officials have said Mehsud is almost certainly dead, and there may be a power struggle for the militant leadership.
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