Pak Taliban claim attack, threaten more

---

PESHAWAR, Mar 31 (AFP): Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud Tuesday claimed an assault on a police academy in Lahore and promised to unleash further attacks.
"We claim responsibility for the attack. This was in retaliation for the ongoing drone attacks in the tribal areas. There will be more such attacks," Mehsud told the news agency in a telephone conversation from an unknown location.
Attackers armed with guns, grenades and suicide vests Monday stormed the training centre near Pakistan's cultural capital Lahore, unleashing eight hours of gun battles until they were overpowered by security forces.
Mehsud is Pakistan's most-wanted militant and heads the much-feared Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The former government in Islamabad accused him of masterminding the 2007 assassination of ex-premier Benazir Bhutto.
Mehsud-who has a five-million-dollar US price on his head-said he had set up a council of mujahedeen (holy warriors) bringing together different militant groups "to step up attacks on US and NATO forces in Afghanistan." He dismissed the US reward for his arrest. "The maximum they can do is martyr me," he said.