Islamabad, Dec 17 (IANS): US Secretary of State John Kerry telephoned Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif Wednesday and condemned the barbaric massacre of children in a Peshawar school.
"We condemn the terror attack in Peshawar. The US will stand by the people and the government of Pakistan," he told Sharif, Dawn online reported.
Kerry assured Sharif that the US would support Pakistan in its war against terrorists.
The Pakistani Taliban killed 148 people, 132 of them children, in a brazen terror attack launched by its heavily armed gunmen and suicide bombers on an army-run school in Pakistan's Peshawar city.
The taliban said the attack was in retaliation to the army's operation against extremists in North Waziristan.
Pakistan's national flag was lowered to half-mast on government buildings in condemnation and mourning over Tuesday's attack.