Pak Taliban claim NY attack responsibility
Pti, Ani, Islamabad/ New York
Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud yesterday claimed responsibility for a shooting incident at an immigration services office in New York, which claimed 14 lives.
The Pakistani Taliban commander claimed the attack was launched by a Pakistani man and another unidentified man.
"I accept responsibility. They were my men. I gave them orders in reaction to US drone attacks," Mehsud said by telephone from an undisclosed location.
However, US authorities said they found no link between the Pakistan Taliban and the shooting.
The chief of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan warned that "such attacks would continue" to avenge missile strikes by US drones in tribal areas and "brutalities in Palestine."
Mehsud also pointed out that he had said a few days ago that his militants would carry out attacks on American soil.
The claim by the Pakistani Taliban commander came hours after a US drone attack in North Waziristan tribal agency killed 13 people, including women and children.
Mehsud had recently claimed responsibility for the terrorist siege of a police training centre at Manawan near Lahore that killed eight persons and injured over 90 as well as for two recent suicide attacks.
But New York Police have revealed that the gunman, who killed 14 people and wounded 40 others at an immigration centre here on Friday, was a Chinese American.
Police identified him as 41-year-old Jiverly Wong, a former IBM employee. Binghamton Police Chief Joseph Zikuski said the rampage "obviously was premeditated" and began with the shooting of two receptionists. One died. The other was critically wounded, but she pretended to be dead and was able to crawl to a desk and call 911 when the gunman walked down a hallway.
Television reports said that Wong was carrying a satchel containing ammunition slung around his neck. Police found two handguns - a 9mm and a .45-caliber, a torch and a hunting knife.
Immigrants were preparing for citizenship tests at the time of the shootout.
Zikuski said 37 people were rescued from the building, and four of them were wounded and in critical condition. More than two dozen had hid in a boiler room until police said it was safe to come out.
The authorities have searched Wong's home and taken three computer hard drives, a brown canvas rifle case, a briefcase, a small suitcase and several paper bags.
Police did not mention a motive. US Rep. Maurice Hinchey, whose district includes Binghamton, said the gunman had recently been let go from IBM in Johnson City. He said it was not clear of the gunman's connection to the centre. IBM couldn't immediately confirm that.
US SEES NO TALIBAN LINK
US authorities said yesterday they found no link between the Pakistan Taliban and a shooting in New York state which left 14 dead.
A US official said on condition of anonymity that "the FBI has uncovered no evidence linking the gunman in the New York attack to terrorists."
A man claiming to be Pakistan's most-wanted militant on Saturday claimed responsibility for Friday's massacre in Binghamton, but Pakistani officials rubbished his claim.
"Whatever happened in America yesterday, was done by our men," Baitullah Mehsud told local journalists in a telephone call from an undisclosed location heard by an AFP reporter.
Mehsud, who has a five-million-dollar US bounty on his head, threatened Tuesday in telephone calls to Western media to attack Washington in retaliation for US missile strikes against Islamist extremists in Pakistan.
The Taliban chief appeared to give details at odds with US police statements and reports that a lone Vietnamese gunman was responsible for the killings in upstate New York.
US police said a lone gunman killed 14 people at a citizenship centre in Binghamton, in upstate New York on Friday before taking his own life.
Pakistani officials also poured scorn on Mehsud's assertion.
"We don't think he has the capability to strike in the United States," one Pakistani security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
New York Police have revealed that the gunman was a Chinese American.
Police identified him as 41-year-old Jiverly Wong, a former IBM employee. Binghamton Police Chief Joseph Zikuski said the rampage "obviously was premeditated" and began with the shooting of two receptionists. One died. The other was critically wounded, but she pretended to be dead and was able to crawl to a desk and call 911 when the gunman walked down a hallway.
Television reports said that Wong was carrying a satchel containing ammunition slung around his neck. Police found two handguns - a 9mm and a .45-caliber, a torch and a hunting knife.
Immigrants were preparing for citizenship tests at the time of the shootout.
Zikuski said 37 people were rescued from the building, and four of them were wounded and in critical condition. More than two dozen had hid in a boiler room until police said it was safe to come out.
The authorities have searched Wong's home and taken three computer hard drives, a brown canvas rifle case, a briefcase, a small suitcase and several paper bags.
Police did not mention a motive. US Rep. Maurice Hinchey, whose district includes Binghamton, said the gunman had recently been let go from IBM in Johnson City. He said it was not clear of the gunman's connection to the centre. IBM couldn't immediately confirm that.
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