15 May 2011

Six charged in US with supporting Taliban

8:00 am on 15 May 2011

Six people have been charged in the United States with providing financial and material support to the Pakistani Taliban.

Three are US citizens, two of whom are Muslim clerics at mosques in Florida, while the other three are at large in Pakistan.

The charges have come amid heightened tension in relations between Pakistan and the US, the BBC reports, following the covert raid in the city of Abbottabad in which the al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed.

On Saturday, Pakistani MPs passed a resolution condeming the US operation and demanding a review of the bilateral relationship.

The Pakistani Taliban have claimed responsibility for a revenge attack on a police academy in which 80 people were killed by suicide bombers.