Taliban attack a Pakistani school and kill at least 126 people. Yahoo/AP.

A wounded student being helped after the attack in Peshawar Pakistan. Yahoo/AP

Gunmen from the Pakistani Tehreek-e-Taliban attacked a school in Peshawar, Pakistan and killed at least 126 people. Yahoo/AP. Most of the victims were students in grades one through ten enrolled at the school. The attack happened in the morning with half a dozen gunmen shooting randomly. Commandos from the Pakistani military responded quickly and fought a pitched battle with the terrorists. The military deployed APC's and helicopters and were able to rescue 11 staff members from inside the school. The terrorists had taken hostages but it is unclear how many. Sources are also unclear about how many attackers were involved. At least two were killed and one blew himself up with a suicide belt. The attack is seen as retaliation against Pakistan's military campaign against the Taliban in North Waziristan. 

My Comment:

The war against Islamic terror is truly global at this point. Lost in the fight against ISIS and all the various battles in Africa, Pakistan has its own major insurgency. Along with Afghanistan, the whole region is unstable, with the Taliban advancing in both countries. Killing children as a political statement is, of course, reprehensible, but this isn't the first time that an Islamic extremist group has targeted them. It almost seems that the various extremists groups are trying to outdo each other in terms of atrocity. 

As for Pakistan, the war against the Taliban and other terror groups in North Waziristan has largely gone unnoticed. It is a shadowy war that certainly has some U.S. involvement. I've heard rumors that some of the U.S. drone strikes in the area were done on behest of the Pakistani government to take out their own internal enemies as payment for being allowed to operate against Al-Qaeda and other extremist groups. This attack is just another part of this shadow war.