`Pakistani Taliban threaten to target US Embassy`

Islamabad: The banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has threatened to attack the US Embassy here in the wake of the killing of its former chief Hakimullah Mehsud in a drone attack, a media report said today. The News daily quoted its sources as saying that a security agency had sent a report to the government that the Taliban had "uploaded a web message which has criticised the federal government and the army chief and warned to attack the US Embassy". The unnamed security agency had called for preventive measures in the wake of the threat, which came less than a fortnight after Mehsud was killed by a CIA-operated drone. The Taliban have already vowed to launch revenge attacks for the killing. The US Embassy is located in the heavily fortified Diplomatic Enclave and is one of the most protected missions in Islamabad. Last year, Taliban militants had attacked a vehicle of the US Consulate in Peshawar, killing at least two people and injuring more than a dozen. The Pakistani Taliban, which is linked to Al Qaeda, has been able to mount attacks against Pakistani and US forces despite repeated drone strikes on their hideouts along the Afghan border. An American working for a US-funded aid programme was killed in Peshawar in late 2008 and the top US diplomat in the consulate survived an attack on her armoured vehicle in August of that year. A US diplomat was killed in an attack in Karachi in 2006. The US government had in August ordered the evacuation of non-essential staff from its consulate in Lahore due to threats of attack. American citizens in Pakistan, including those working on social projects, are always under threat. In August 2011, US national Warren Weinstein, who was working for an NGO, was kidnapped from his home in Lahore. He continues to remain in the custody of militants.