Al-Qaeda denounced Peshawar school massacre, tells Taliban to spare kids

Islamabad: The al-Qaeda on Sunday denounced the Peshawar school massacre that left 149 people dead — most of them children — urging the militants to only target security forces.

“Our hearts are bursting with pain and grief over this incident,” Osama Mehmood, spokesman for al-Qaeda’s South Asia chapter said in an emailed statement. “There is no doubt that the list of crimes and atrocities of the Pakistani army has crossed the limit and it is true that this army is ahead of everyone in America’s slavery and genocide of Muslims but it does not mean that we should seek revenge from oppressed Muslims,” he said.

“The guns that we have taken up against Allah’s enemy America and its pet rulers and slave army should not be aimed towards children, women and our Muslim people,” he added.