Taliban, LeT possible suspects behind Lahore attack: Report

NEW YORK: American counter-terrorism officials were on Wednesday quoted as saying that the Taliban and Lashkar-Taiba were possible suspects to have carried out the deadly attack on Sri Lankan cricket team.

Though it is still not clear and to early to identify which group's hand was in the attack, but The New York Times quoted an unidentified South Asia specialist as raising the possibility that LTTE in Sri Lanka might have asked Lashkar- e-Taiba militants in Pakistan to attack the visiting cricket team.

If true, this would be an ominous sign of collaboration between regional terrorist groups, it commented.

American experts, the paper said, voiced concern that such attacks might be the new terrorist strike of choice instead of suicide bombings.

"It's likely there will be more of these kinds of attacks, which are much more difficult to defend against," Juan Zarate, the White House's top counter-terrorism official under President George W Bush told the paper.

"Mumbai has become a terrorist exemplar." In Lahore, the paper noted, the attackers also appeared to be in their early 20s. They wore sneakers and loose pants and carried backpacks loaded with weapons and high-energy snacks of dried fruit and chocolate, all characteristics of the Mumbai gunmen.