Taliban: Will not attack nuclear arsenal

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, May 27 (UPI) -- Contrary to Western concerns, the Pakistani Taliban will not strike the country's nuclear arsenal, Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said.

Ehsan, in a telephone interview with The Wall Street Journal, dismissed concerns about an attack on the arsenal, calling them an excuse of the United States to pressure Islamabad to fight the Taliban.

Pakistan is estimated to have about 100 warheads. Its officials say the locations where they are stored are well guarded. However, the report said, United States and other Western officials have doubts because they have little access to the nuclear program.

International concerns about the safety of Pakistan's nuclear sites have mounted since Sunday when a group of militants launched an attack on the heavily fortified naval air station in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city and main port. The station is not far from one of the country's nuclear sites.

At least 12 security personnel and many of the militants died in that attack and in an ensuing gunbattle that lasted into Monday. The attackers destroyed two planes.

Several other regions of Pakistan have had escalating violence in recent months.

The Taliban have vowed to avenge the killing of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden May 2 by U.S. forces during a raid on his compound in the Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad, northeast of Islamabad.

Ehsan, declaring that the Taliban are the true protectors of Pakistan, told the Journal: "Pakistan is the only Muslim nuclear-power state." He said the Taliban have no intention of changing that fact.

The Journal said most Pakistanis resent the Taliban's violence but share their anti-American sentiments.

Pakistan considers the May 2 U.S. raid a violation of its sovereignty.