UN closes offices in north-west Pakistan after attacks

Apr 6, 2010, 8:09 GMT

Islamabad - The United Nations temporarily closed its offices in north-west Pakistan Tuesday, a day after a series of bombings and gun attacks against a political rally and a US consulate killed 53 people and injured more than 120.

'We have closed our offices in North-West Frontier Province for two days in view of the security situation there,' said Ishrat Rizvi, a UN information officer in Islamabad. 'The UN staff has been asked to work from home.'

Six attackers on Monday launched a raid on the heavily guarded US consulate in the provincial capital, Peshawar, with a barrage of suicide attacks, grenades and gunfire. They killed six security personnel and injured 20 people.

The main entrance of the US mission was damaged, but no staff member was injured. Pakistani police and soldiers killed all the assailants during the botched attempt to enter the facility.

'It's a great achievement that the attackers did not manage to reach their target,' provincial police chief Malik Naveed told reporters Tuesday. 'They were killed before they could get there.'

Hours before the attack on the consulate, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives-packed vest at a political rally in the province's Lower Dir district, killing and wounding dozens.

'The death toll now stands at 47 while 107 people are injured,' Wakeel Mohammad, the head of a state-run hospital in Lower Dir's main city of Timar Girah, said Tuesday.

The attacks come as Pakistani security forces have intensified efforts to rout Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters in the tribal region along the Afghan border. The United States has praised the Pakistani military offensive.

Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq accepted responsibility for Monday's attacks, warning of more strikes if Pakistan continued its campaign in the tribal region.

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton condemned Monday's strikes.

'The assault this morning is part of a wave of violence perpetrated by brutal extremists who seek to undermine Pakistan's democracy and sow fear and discord,' she said.

Clinton said the attacks highlighted the 'common challenges' the two countries faced in defeating terrorism.