Pakistan: Dozens of children killed as Taliban attack Peshawar school

Many children are feared dead in an attack by the Taliban on a military-run school at Peshawar in northern Pakistan.<br /><br /> The head of the regional government told local television channels that 84 children had been killed.<br /><br /> “In CMH (Combined Military Hospital) there are around 60 and there are 24 dead in Lady Reading (hospital),” Pervaiz Khattak is quoted as saying.<br /><br /> The country’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has called the massacre a “national tragedy”.<br /><br /> A military official said some children were still being held hostage by Taliban gunmen. <br /><br /> Earlier, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban said what he called its suicide bombers had instructions only to target military personnel.<br /><br /> The city of Peshawar lies not far from the Afghan border. The Pakistani Taliban are fighting to topple the government and set up a strict Islamic state.<br /><br /> One student described how they lay on the floor in an exam hall amid prolonged gunfire. <br /><br /> The Taliban said the attack was in revenge for a Pakistani military offensive in June in the North Waziristan region.<br /><br /> It said it had targeted the school because the army targeted its families, and “we want them to feel our pain”.