Shiite Mosque attack claims 19

PESHAWAR. — At least 19 people were killed yesterday in the Pakistani city of Peshawar in a gun and bomb attack on a Shi’ite mosque, the latest sectarian violence to hit the South Asian nation.

Radical Sunni Islamist groups often target mosques frequented by minority Shi’ites, whom they see as infidels.

Police said armed men broke into the mosque, where people were attending Friday prayers, and opened fire, following which three explosions were heard inside the building. The Pakistani Taliban, who are fighting against the state to set up a hardline Sunni theocracy, claimed responsibility and said the attack was revenge for Pakistan’s crackdown on militants following a December school massacre.

“Either Pakistan will become your graveyard, or God’s law, sharia, will be implemented,” Taliban commander Khaleefa Omar Mansoor said in a video in which he was flanked by three young militants clutching AK-47 assault rifles.

“This is the first in a series of revenge attacks . . . Wait for the rest,” Mansoor, who had earlier claimed responsibility for the December 16 attack in which more than 150 people were killed, said in the video sent by e-mail to reporters. — Reuters.