LADDAH: The outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has claimed responsibility for Thursday’s attacks on Smungli and Kahlid airbases in Quetta.

Azam Tariq Mahsud, a spokesperson for TTP South Waziristan, told this correspondent on phone on Friday that the attacks had been carried out by Taliban. He was using an Afghan cellphone number.

He said the attackers led by Sunar Mahsud comprised militants from three Taliban groups — the Eshtehadi Force of TTP South Waziristan headed by Khalid Mahsud, known as Khan Said Sajna, the Aafia Brigade of Khalid Khurasani and the Uzbek Islamic Movement.

Azam Tariq said 12 fighters, three of them suicide bombers, took part in the attacks.

According to him, the attacks were a revenge for drone strikes carried out in what he alleged Pakistan Army’s collusion with US forces, the treatment meted out to TTP men in jails and troops’ shelling on innocent people in North Waziristan. He said the TTP would continue to attack the army.

Published in Dawn, August 16th, 2014