Suicide blast outside Iranian Consulate in Peshawar kills 2

A suicide bomber struck outside the Iranian Consulate in this northwestern Pakistani city today, killing two security personnel in an attack claimed by Mast Gul, who was involved in the 1995 siege of Charar-e-Sharief shrine in Jammu and Kashmir.
Nine others were injured in the attack in the up-market University Town area that houses many important installations, including offices of several UN agencies.
Police said a suspicious vehicle stopped close to a security check post near the Iranian Consulate. A man emerged from the car, walked up to the post and blew himself up.
The blast killed two Frontier Corps personnel in the check post.

Mast Gul, a former Hizbul Mujahideen commander who is now part of the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, claimed the attack.
His spokesman called up newspapers and news agencies in Peshawar to accept responsibility for the attack on the Iranian Consulate. "We will conduct similar attacks against Shias in the coming days," he said.

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Health Minister Shaukat Yousafzai told reporters that the Iranian Consulate was the apparent target of the attack.
Mast Gul alias Haroon Khan, who was involved in the infamous siege of Charar-e-Sharief in 1995, had also claimed a suicide attack on a hotel in a Shia-dominated area of Peshawar that killed nine persons earlier this month.

When the 47-year-old Gul surfaced to claim the earlier suicide attack, it was the first time he was seen in public in over a decade. Little was known of his whereabouts since he was injured in an ambush near Peshawar in August 2003.