GOP chairman: Pakistan attack ‘sickening’

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.) said Tuesday that the Taliban attack on a Pakistani school was “sickening.”

About a half dozen Taliban gunmen took children hostage and opened fire on students at the Army Public School in Peshawar in an attack that left 126 people dead, according to reports.

{mosads}Royce said the attack on schoolchildren – similar to what happened to Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai 2012 – was especially troubling.

“Today’s terrorist attack in Pakistan – on schoolchildren – is absolutely sickening,” Royce said in a statement. “Even by the grim standards of terrorist attacks in Pakistan, this is a low.”

President Obama also condemned the attacks earlier Tuesday. 

“We stand with the people of Pakistan, and reiterate the commitment of the United States to support the Government of Pakistan in its efforts to combat terrorism and extremism and to promote peace and stability in the region,” Obama said in a statement.