Claim of responsibility is met with skepticism

May 4, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Los Angeles Times

ISLAMABAD

Pakistani Taliban videos claiming responsibility for a car bomb found in downtown New York during the weekend and vowing to strike American cities with suicide attacks were greeted with skepticism by analysts Monday, who said the militant group lacks the capability and reach to carry out such missions in the U.S.

A 71-second video posted on the Internet claimed that the Pakistani Taliban planned an attack in Times Square in retaliation for the U.S. drone-missile strike that killed the insurgent group’s leader, Baitullah Mahsud, last August. A voice speaking in Urdu states that the group “takes full responsibility for the recent attack in the USA.”

In another video made public Monday, Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mahsud warned that his insurgent group already had deployed suicide bombers in the U.S. and that they would soon carry out attacks in major American cities. Mahsud states that April 4 was the date the video was made.

“Our [suicide bombers]have penetrated the terrorist America,” said Mahsud, flanked by two militants masked with white veils. “We will give extremely painful blows to the fanatic America.”

New York police have said there is no evidence to support the Pakistani Taliban’s claim of responsibility for a sport-utility vehicle found in Times Square on Saturday carrying materials including plastic cans filled with gasoline, M-88 firecrackers, three propane tanks, wires and two alarm clocks. The militant group previously has said it was responsible for an attack in the U.S. that it was not involved in. Baitullah Mahsud had falsely claimed that the Taliban carried out a mass shooting in Binghamton, N.Y., that killed 14 people in April 2009.