Terrorists Strike Peshawar As Secretary of State Clinton Visits Pakistan

A terrorist detonated a large car bomb in the middle of a market in Peshawar, killing at least 90 people.

A car packed with 150 kilograms (330 pounds) of explosives detonated at Peshawar's Meena Bazaar Wednesday, killing at least 90 people and injuring more than 200 others, according to a government official.

Most of the dead were women who were shopping in the labyrinth of stores in the Peepal Mandi section of the city, according to North West Frontier Province's information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain.

The flames from the explosion sparked fires at stores selling highly flammable fabric, causing some of the casualties, Hussain said.

That came at a time when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was visiting Islamabad to discuss foreign relations with the Pakistani government.

This terror attack is no coincidence. The Taliban meant this mass murder to send a message to the Pakistani government and the United States.

The attack is just the latest in a string of mass murder attacks committed by the Taliban against the Pakistani people in retaliation for the Pakistani military's ongoing military campaign in the frontier provinces. The attacks aren't confined to Pakistan either, as a an assault on a UN guest quarters killed six UN workers in Kabul:

Several Taliban fighters wearing police uniforms and suicide bombs stormed the compound. Three of the bombers detonated their vests.

Afghan security forces cleared the compound and discovered six foreign UN workers were killed in the attack.

The Taliban took credit for the attack and said it was part of a campaign to disrupt the run off presidential election scheduled for Nov. 7.

"We have said that we would attack anyone engaged in the process and today's attack is just a start," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Reuters.