PESHAWAR, Aug 28 (AFP) -Suspected militants attacked army buildings near the US consulate in Pakistan's northwestern regional capital Peshawar today, police said.
Police said a number of armed fighters tried to get into a secure area close to the consulate and army buildings early in the morning and that exchanges of fire between the attackers and security forces were continuing.
“Their target is not clear but they were trying to reach a very sensitive area. There is the US consulate and army offices and buildings in that area,” Karim Khan, a senior police official in Peshawar, told AFP.“The US consulate is completely safe,” he added.
Richard Snelsire, a spokesman for the US embassy in Islamabad, told AFP he had “no information right now” on whether the consulate was the intended target.
Police said the army had sealed off the site of the attack while intermittent gunfire continued.
An AFP reporter at the scene said army and police had blocked all the roads into the area while helicopters patrolled the skies.
Bashir Bilour, a provincial cabinet minister whose home is in front of the consulate, said “terrorists” had entered an army building. |
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