‘Our hearts bursting with pain’: Al-Qaeda

The local branch of Al-Qaeda in Pakistan’s Peshawar said on Sunday its heart was “bursting with pain” over the Taliban’s massacre at a Pakistan school and urged the militants to target only security forces. Last week’s attack killed 149 people -- most of them children of the local army personnel. The Taliban claimed it was a revenge for the army action against its families. “Our hearts are bursting with pain and grief over this incident,” Osama Mehmood, spokesman for Al-Qaeda’s South Asia chapter, said in a four-page statement e-mailed to the media. Pakistan has described the bloody rampage as its own “mini 9/11”, saying it was a game changer in its fight against terror.