Pakistani Taliban deny attacking a convoy of foreign ambassadors

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Pakistani Taliban on Monday denied involvement in a bombing attack on a police convoy that was escorting foreign ambassadors in the restive northwest, as authorities said they were still trying to determine who was behind it.

Most of the ambassadors and senior envoys were traveling with their family members on Sunday to the Swat Valley, a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban, when the attack occurred in Malam Jabba, one of Pakistan’s two ski resorts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but Mohammad Khurasani, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, denied detonating the improvised explosive device that hit a police vehicle accompanying the convoy.

A police officer was killed and four others were wounded in the attack, which drew strong condemnation from Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and other officials.

The envoys were all unharmed, but the attack suggested there was a security breach.

“For sure it was a security breach because the convoy's route was only known to police, and the bomb disposal unit had reportedly cleared the route,” said Abdullah Khan, a defense analyst and managing director of the Islamabad-based Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies.

“Some insider (appears to have) leaked the information about the travel plans of the foreign ambassadors to the militants," he added.

Khan said the attack signaled a shift in the approach of insurgents, who previously targeted security forces.

Pakistani defense analyst Syed Muhammad Ali said there was a need for better coordination between federal authorities and police about such high-profile visits to the northwest, which has witnessed a surge in violence.

Those traveling in the convoy were ambassadors and officials from Indonesia, Portugal, Kazakhstan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Turkmenistan, Vietnam, Iran, Russia and Tajikistan. All of them later returned to the capital, Islamabad, according to Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In a statement, TTP said it had nothing to do with the attack. TTP is a separate group but also a close ally of the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in neighboring Afghanistan in August 2021 as U.S. and NATO troops were in the final stages of their pullout from the country after 20 years of war.

Many TTP leaders and fighters have found sanctuary and have even been living openly in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover, which also emboldened the Pakistani Taliban. The situation has strained relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan's Taliban government, which says it does not allow anyone to use its soil for attacks against any country.

Authorities were investigating to determine whether there was a security breach, since details about the convoy's travel plans had been circulated only to officials. Authorities said they were also collecting information to determine who planted the IED device along the route.

Mohammad Ali Khan, a senior police officer, said that so far no arrest had been made.

Sunday's attack came months after a suicide bomber in northwestern Pakistan rammed his explosive-laden car into a vehicle, killing five Chinese nationals and their Pakistani driver in Shangla, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

The Chinese victims were construction workers and engineers who were working on Dasu Dam, the biggest hydropower project in Pakistan. Since then, Pakistan has beefed up security for foreigners and envoys traveling in the region.

Associated Press writer Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan contributed to this report.

Vehicles drive past a damaged police vehicle, foreground, which was escorting a convoy of foreign diplomats, at the site of a fatal bomb explosion on a road near Malam Jabba, a tourist area in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Sherin Zada)

People gather near a damaged police vehicle which was escorting a convoy of foreign diplomats, at the site of a fatal bomb explosion on a road near Malam Jabba, a tourist area in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Sherin Zada)

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis canceled his audiences Monday because of a “slight flu-like state,” just days before he is to embark on a trip to Belgium and Luxembourg, the Vatican said.

A statement from the Vatican described the clearing of Francis' agenda for the day as a “precaution.”

Francis is due to visit Luxembourg on Thursday and then spend the rest of the week in Belgium, ending with a Mass in Brussels on Sunday.

The 87-year-old pope, who has been using a wheelchair for two years, has battled a series of health problems in recent years and had part of one lung removed as a young man because of a respiratory infection.

He has had a packed schedule of audiences since returning from a four-nation, 11-day journey through Asia on Sept. 13, which was the longest and farthest trip of his pontificate. The audiences have included multiple meetings with visiting bishops, individual audiences with his Vatican aides as well as a big encounter on Friday with members of popular movements.

The statement from the Holy See press office described Francis as having a “flu-like state.” Through much of last autumn and winter, Francis battled acute bronchitis and recurring bouts of influenza, which forced him to cancel a quick trip to Dubai in November to participate in the U.N. climate conference.

He did so, the Vatican said at the time, at the recommendation of his doctors.

In Belgium, Francis is due to celebrate the 600th anniversary of the country’s main Catholic universities, and minister to Belgians who have been rocked by years of unrelenting revelations of clergy sexual abuse and cover-up.

The challenging Asia trip, followed so closely by the Belgium and Luxembourg visit, was already going to test Francis' health, especially as he heads into a busy autumn. As soon as he returns from Belgium, he is due to preside over a three-week synod, or meeting of bishops, which involves long days of closed-door debate about the future of the church.

Francis' audiences on Monday included with the members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, who are meeting at the Vatican this week for their plenary assembly, and participants in a Christmas contest. The Vatican published the texts Francis was supposed to have delivered to both.

Francis has had several health problems in recent years. In 2023, he spent three days in the hospital receiving intravenous antibiotics to treat a respiratory infection. In 2021, he had 13 inches (33 centimeters) of his colon removed, and then had a follow-up surgery two years later to repair an abdominal hernia and to remove scar tissue.

Pope Francis arrives for his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Francis gives his thumbs up as he arrives for his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Francis leaves at the end of his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Francis waves during the Angelus noon prayer from the window of his studio overlooking St.Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)