Just days after a car bomb tore through a marketplace and killed 117 people in Peshawar, Pakistan the Taliban has done an abrupt about-face and denied any involvement in the attacks. Instead, they took a page out of American leftist groups like moveon.org or Code Pink's playbook and blamed private military contractors Blackwater USA for the bombing [caveat- link is from Iran's state-run Press TV, although several Pakistani news outlets are reporting the same story].
Certainly the Taliban wasn't shy about taking credit for earlier attacks this month. I have to wonder what was so beyond the pale about the October 28th attack that they carried out this week that they decided to try and deflect blame to Blackwater [now Xe Services LLC]. This week's attack did coincide with a visit from Secretary of State Clinton, but I think that was meant for the Taliban to show the Pakistani government how powerless they were by staging a mass csualty attack while a high-profile VIP was visiting Pakistan.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani Army has launched an offensive in South Waziristan, sending seven brigades (approximately 18,000 troops) to cordon off and search the reigon for Tehrik-e-Taliban militants.
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