Taliban strike mosque in Pakistan, killing 19

The Taliban attacked a Shiite mosque in Peshawar, Pakistan, on Friday, killing at least 19 people, according to media reports.

More than 40 were wounded in the assault as attackers shot worshippers and detonated suicide vests. Reports state that three of the attackers were killed, two by suicide bombs and one by those in the mosque.

The Taliban claimed responsibility.

{mosads}The attack is the second in Peshawar in less than three months as the Pakistani Taliban push back against military operations targeting their strongholds.

In December, the Taliban committed a brutal attack on a school in the city that killed 140 people, most of them young students.

That strike brought a swift reprisal from the Pakistani government when security forces killed the man they said had organized the attacks just 10 days later.

A suicide bomber also attacked a mosque in Rawalpindi in early January.

The U.S. has been trying to strengthen its sometimes-difficult relationship with Pakistan. Secretary of State John Kerry made an unannounced visit there last month to encourage the nation’s leadership to expand its anti-terrorism operations to include militant networks beyond the Pakistani Taliban.