The Pakistani-based terrorist group Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which has carried out numerous attacks against American interests in Pakistan and Afghanistan, has warned of future terror attacks inside the U.S.

While TTP originally focused its attacks on Pakistani and American installations in Pakistan and Afghanistan in order to implement shari'a, or Islamic law, the May 2010 attempted bombing in Times Square is indicative of the group's expanded focus of operations. Leaders of TTP, which facilitated, funded and directed the failed attack, claimed responsibility for the attempted bombing, describing it as revenge for the April 2010 killings of Al Qaeda's top two leaders in Iraq, as well as for perceived U.S. interference in Muslim countries.

"These individuals are dedicated terrorists, and they are attempting to extend their bloody reach into the American homeland," Robert Hartung, Assistant Director of Threat Investigations and Analysis Directorate in the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, said. "They are a danger to the interests of the United States, to its facilities and its citizens."

Several months earlier, TTP orchestrated a suicide bombing at a U.S. military base in Afghanistan, in which seven American citizens were killed. TTP has since claimed that the bombing was a revenge attack for the death of Beitullah Mehsud, the former TTP leader who was reportedly killed in a drone attack in August 2009.

TTP leaders have since warned that they have placed operatives, poised to launch terror attacks, in the U.S.  "Our fidaeen [commandos] have penetrated the terrorist America, we will give extremely painful blows to the fanatic America," TTP leader Hakimullah Mehsud threatened. "The flames in our hearts will only be lightened when our Fidaaeen [sic] will deliver precise and destructive attacks on the terrorist America, bringing it down to its knees."