QUETTA, Pakistan, Sept 3 (Reuters) - A suicide bomber struck a rally in the Pakistani city of Quetta on Friday, killing at least 54 people in the second major attack this week, piling pressure on a U.S.-backed government overwhelmed by a flood crisis.
Pakistan’s Taliban claimed responsibility for the blast and said it would launch attacks in the United States and Europe "very soon", repeating a threat to strike Western targets in response to drone attacks that have targeted its leadership.
The Quetta attack on a Shi’ite rally expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people came as the United States said the devastating floods were likely to hold up army offensives against Taliban insurgents.
"Unfortunately the flooding in Pakistan is probably going to delay any operations by the Pakistani army in North Waziristan for some period of time," U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in Afghanistan where he is visiting U.S. troops.
Senior police official Hamid Shakeel told Reuters that at least 54 people were killed and about 160 wounded in Quetta.
Dozens of dead and wounded lay in pools of blood after the blast that also engulfed vehicles in flames.
Hours later, the al Qaeda-linked Taliban took responsibility for the attack, saying it was revenge for killings of radical Sunni clerics by Shi’ites, further challenging the unpopular civilian government.
"We take pride in taking responsibility for the Quetta attack," Qari Hussain Mehsud, a senior Pakistani Taliban and mentor of suicide bombers, told Reuters.
Earlier in the day, the Taliban also claimed responsibility for bombings on Wednesday at a Shi’ite procession in the eastern city of Lahore in which at least 33 people died. These blasts were the first major attack since flood waters tore through the country. The Taliban and their allies often target religious minorities in a campaign to destabilise the government.
ECONOMIC CRISIS
Islamist charities, some of them linked to militant groups, have joined in the relief effort for the millions affected by the worst floods in the nation’s history. U.S. officials are concerned that the involvement of hardline groups in flood relief will undermine the fight against militancy.
Anger is spreading over the government’s sluggish response to the floods, raising the possibility of social unrest.
Pakistan is also facing economic catastrophe, with the floods causing damage the government has estimated at $43 billion, almost a quarter of the south Asian nation’s 2009 GDP.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) will give Pakistan $450 million in emergency flood aid and disburse funds in September to help the economy cope with the devastation.
Talks in Washington with a delegation led by Pakistan’s Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh on the terms of an $11 billion IMF loan programme left him satisfied with the country’s commitment to reforms, IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said.
Under the 2008 IMF loan programme, Islamabad promised to implement tax and energy sector reforms and give full autonomy to the State Bank of Pakistan.
