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Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- "'God is great,'" the Taliban militants exclaimed, as they roared through the hallways of a Peshawar, Pakistan, school.
Then, 14-year-old student Ahmed Faraz recalled, one of them changed the narrative.
" 'A lot of the children are under the benches,' " a Pakistani Taliban member said, according to Ahmed. " 'Kill them.' "
By the time the hours-long siege at Army Public School and Degree College ended early Tuesday evening, at least 137 people -- most of them children -- were dead, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province Information Minister Mushtaq Ghani said. More than 100 were injured, many of them suffering gunshot wounds.
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Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school
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Map: Peshawar, Pakistan
The death toll does not include the attackers. Mohammed Khurrassani, spokesman for Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan, or Pakistan Taliban, said the six militants scaled the school's walls around 10 a.m. (midnight ET), intent on killing older students there.
These Taliban had "300 to 400 people ... under their custody" at one point, Khurrassani said.
They were eventually met by Pakistani troops who pushed through the school complex building by building, classroom by classroom. By 4 p.m., they'd managed to confine the attackers to four buildings. A few hours later, Peshawar police Chief Mohammad Aijaz Khan said that all of them were dead.
Still, the ordeal isn't over.
Pakistani authorities remained inside the school in Peshawar, a city about 120 kilometers (75 miles) from the country's capital, Islamabad, looking for survivors, victims and improvised explosive devices planted to make the carnage even worse.
The story continues on many fronts, such as the military's continued offensive against militants in northwest Pakistan and Peshawar hospitals where many young people are fighting for their lives.
In a tweet, military spokesman Gen. Asim Bajwa called the attack a "ghastly act of cowardice in killing innocents" that, in his view, proves that the Taliban are "not only enemies of (Pakistan) but enemies of humanity."
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