Fresh Gunfire at Karachi Airport, 24 Dead in Terror Attack
Posted by Unknown on Sunday, June 8, 2014 | 0 comments
Pakistan’s security forces said Monday they have relaunched a military operation at Karachi airport as gunfire resumed several hours after they announced the end of a militant siege that left 24 dead.
“We have relaunched the operation and called in additional troops,” said Sibtain Rizvi, spokesman for the Rangers paramilitary force, adding that one police officer had been injured in the firing.
On Sunday night, heavily armed militants launched an assault on Pakistan’s busiest airport in the southern city of Karachi, leaving at least 24 dead including 10 militants in a six-hour siege that the army quelled at dawn today. (See pics)
Explosions and gunfire rang out as the attackers, equipped with suicide vests, grenades and rocket launchers, battled security forces in one of the most brazen attacks in years in Pakistan’s biggest city.
Authorities said all 10 militants had been killed and that the bodies of 14 victims, including security personnel and four airport workers, had been identified at the city’s main hospital.
“Update: Area cleared. No damage to aircraft, fire visible in pics was not plane but a building, now extinguished. All vital assets intact,” military spokesman Major General Asim Bajwa said in a tweet.
The attack will raise fresh concerns about Pakistan’s shaky security situation, and questions about how militants were able to penetrate Jinnah International Airport, which serves one of the world’s biggest cities.
No one has yet claimed responsibility for the assault, but it came as talks between Pakistan and the Taliban, which began earlier this year, hit an impasse.
Officials said the gunmen entered from two sides of the airport at around 11:00 pm on Sunday — the terminal used for the hajj pilgrimage, and an engineering section close to an old terminal that is no longer in use.
NDTV
