How reasonable is it to assume another terror attack is about to happen?

Pakistani Taliban vow to attack US & Europe “very soon” according to 53 killed in Taliban-claimed bombing in Pakistan :

Quetta, PAKISTAN (Al Arabiya, Agencies)

The Pakistani Taliban have claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed at least 53 Shiite Muslims and injured up to 197 others in southwest Pakistan on Friday.

The attack sharply drove up the toll of sectarian assaults in a country battered by massive flooding.

Taliban, meanwhile, threatened to launch attacks in the United States and Europe “very soon.”

“We will launch attacks in America and Europe very soon,” Qari Hussain Mehsud, a senior Pakistani Taliban leader and mentor of suicide bombers, told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.

Mehsud earlier told AP that though they were fighting the U.S. and the Pakistani government, “Shiites are also our target.”

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Marking al-Quds dayEarlier on Friday, a suicide bombing targeted a Shiite Muslim rally in Pakistan’s southwest city of Quetta, the latest in a string of sectarian attacks.

Police said the bomber was among the 450-strong crowd and detonated on reaching the main square in the city, triggering chaotic scenes, with people setting fires as others fled or lay on the ground to avoid ongoing gunfire.

“At least 53 people have been killed,” Quetta police chief Ghulam Shabir said, adding that at least 197 people were injured.

The rally was being held to mark al-Quds day, an international event staged every year by the Shiite community, opposing Israel’s control of Jerusalem and showing solidarity with Palestinian Muslims.

Shiite Muslims are in the minority in Pakistan, accounting for around a fifth of the country’s 160 million population, which is dominated by Sunnis.

Malik Iqbal, police chief for Baluchistan province, said rally organizers had been warned to use a different route in case of terror attacks.

Police were forced to quell unrest following the attack, said Sardar Khan, chief of Quetta’s police control room.

“An angry mob tried to set on fire a private building and vehicles. Some of the participants were armed and they were firing in the air. They also set on fire some bicycles and motorcycles,” said Khan.

Local television channel AaJ said one of its drivers had been killed in the blast, while there were reports of several other journalists injured in the incident.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani strongly condemned the bomb blast and called for an immediate inquiry into the incident. The U.S. embassy also condemned the attack.

It was the latest in a string of attacks as Muslims marked the final days of the holy month of Ramadan.
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Taliban takes responsibilityOn Wednesday three suicide bombers killed 33 people and wounded hundreds when they targeted a Shiite mourning procession made up of thousands of people, at the moment of the breaking of the fast in the holy month of Ramadan.

Earlier, the al-Qaeda-linked Taliban took responsibility for Wednesday’s bombings in Lahore too, further challenging the civilian government struggling to cope a month after devastating floods.

The Lahore blasts were the first major attack since flood waters tore through the country. “It’s revenge for the killings of innocent Sunnis,” a spokesman for Qari Hussain Mehsud, mentor of the Taliban’s suicide bombers, told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.

Religious violence in Pakistan, mostly between Sunni and Shiite groups, has killed more than 4,000 people in the past decade.

Many attribute the wave of Islamist militant attacks in Pakistan over the past three years to Islamabad’s alliance with Washington and the U.S.-led war against a resurgent Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan.

They say the attacks are coordinated by Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked militants living in the remote mountainous areas bordering Afghanistan.

Aside from its battles against homegrown Taliban, Pakistan is under intense American pressure to tackle Afghan Taliban fighters who cross the border to attack U.S.-led NATO troops.

Pakistan has said the army would decide when to carry out a full-fledged assault in North Waziristan, where Washington says anti-American militants enjoy safe havens, at the time it considers appropriate.

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