A Taliban attack at the Peshawar school in Pakistan has killed 141 people, 132 of them children. According to the Wall Street Journal, this attack is the deadliest Taliban attack that has ever taken place in Pakistan, and a total of seven militants took part. All attackers have been killed.

BBC reports that the school that was under attack is near a military complex in Peshawar. The city, close to the Afghan border, has seen some of the worst of the violence during the Taliban insurgency in recent years. Furthermore, many of the children attending the school were the children of military personnel, and their ages spanned 16 and under.

The attack spanned eight hours, and children remained trapped in the school as hostages. Army and police personnel surrounded the school shortly after the attack began, but bombs planted by the attackers significantly slowed down the clearance operation.

BBC reports that children who survived say the militants went from one classroom to another, shooting indiscriminately. Many surviving children sustained head and chest injuries, and scores of children are being treated at nearby hospitals while parents frantically search for news of their missing children. Bodies have been seen to be carried out of the hospital in coffins.

It seems that the attack was a form of revenge by the Taliban - Muhammad Khurasani, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack in a phone call, saying the group had sent suicide attackers as "revenge for the military operation in Waziristan." He added that they were targeting "senior officers" at the school.

However, the attack was no light gesture. It is obvious that the innocent children attending the school became the main targets of the operation, and the attack has become a national tragedy, with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Pakistani opposition leader and former cricket captain Imran Khan deeming it "utter barbarism."

US President Obama has since stated, "By targeting students and teachers in this heinous attack, terrorists have once again shown their depravity." He then reiterated U.S. support for the Pakistan government's "efforts to combat terrorism and extremism and to promote peace and stability in the region."