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01-04-09 Pakistani Taliban Chief Threatens Washington Attack

The leader of the Pakistani Taliban threatened Tuesday to carry out a terrorist attack on the U.S. capital,and said his forces were behind an assault on a police academy in eastern Pakistan.Baitullah Mehsud said fighters loyal to him raided the police academy on the outskirts of Lahore on Monday to avenge continuing U.S. missile strikes against Islamic militants along the border with Afghanistan,a region largely controlled by the Taliban and al Qaeda.The attack on the police academy,which left 12 people dead, "was in retaliation for the ongoing drone attacks in the tribal areas.There will be more such attacks," he said by telephone from an undisclosed location.Mr. Mehsud,who spoke with a handful of Pakistani reporters,is based in the South Waziristan tribal region,on the Afghan border.A senior U.S. official said,"We've seen a widening of the attacks," out of the tribal areas,and added, "this has had the effect of having a lot of Pakistanis binding together. "In March,U.S.officials issued a $5 million bounty for Mr. Mehsud.Domestic counterterrorism officials in Washington noted that the Pakistani militant has made similar threats in the past.Mr. Mehsud's claim of responsibility for the attack at the police academy heightened fears that militant violence,which has engulfed much of northwestern Pakistan,is spreading to the country's eastern heartland,Punjab