AFP/AFP – Map locating Peshawar, Pakistan where Taliban militants attacked an army-run school/AFP
PESHAWAR, Dec 16- At least 20 people including 17 children were killed and 36 wounded in a Taliban attack on an army run school in Pakistan on Tuesday, officials said.
The health minister for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the restive northwestern province where the attack took place, said two teachers were also among the dead.
Five or six militants wearing military uniforms have entered the Army Public School in the city of Peshawar, a source at the school told AFP.
The Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack, saying the gunmen had been ordered to shoot older students but not children.
“There has been an incident of firing at Army Public School in Peshawar. Troops have cordoned off the area and (are) searching for the militants,” a senior military official told AFP.
The source in the school said two ninth grade students, aged around 14, were wounded in the firing.
The attack comes as the Pakistani military wages a major offensive against Taliban and other militants in the tribal area of North Waziristan.
TTP spokesman Muhammad Khorasani told AFP there were six attackers.
“They include target killers and suicide attackers. They have been ordered to shoot the older students but not the children,” he said.
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