Monday, May 23, 2011 3:44:14 AM
Pakistani naval base under attack
Taliban claims responsibility for ongoing attack on naval facility in Karachi that has left at least 12 dead.
Last Modified: 23 May 2011 05:00
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=us7_hJofur4
At least 12 officials are reported to have been killed and 14 others injured in an ongoing attack by armed men on a military base in the Pakistani city of Karachi, according to Al Jazeera's sources.
Some of the attackers are still inside the base and commandos and marines are continuing to battle them several hours after the assault began, Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder said on Monday.
Irfan ul Haq, Pakistan navy spokesman, said that 11 navy officers and one paramilitary ranger have been killed.
At least a dozen men attacked the Mehran base, a key naval aviation facility, late on Sunday. Two maritime patrol aircraft were destroyed and at least nine people were also wounded in the assault.
"The navy was in a high state of alert," our correspondent said, adding that "the attack raises a lot of questions as to how such a large number of people, so well armed, could have actually gotten into the base".
Rehman Malik, Pakistan's interior minister, said the "terrorists" sneaked into the base from three points adjacent to residential areas in the city of 16 million people, whose port is a vital hub for NATO supplies bound for Afghanistan.
"A building in the premises is still under their occupation from where they are exchanging fire with our soldiers," Malik said on Monday.
"It is not just an attack on navy establishment, it is an attack on Pakistan," Malik added, warning that those who sympathise with the Taliban and al-Qaeda should instead "join hands with us to save our country".
Talat Hussain, a senior Pakistani journalist, told Pakistan's Dawn News that "We need to realise that this is not just an incident. The reality is that Pakistan is under attack, it is not just a security breach."
Ongoing operation
A spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban said that the team of militants they sent into Karachi's PNS Mehran naval base on Sunday night had enough supplies to survive a three-day siege.
"They have enough ammunition and food and they can fight and survive for three days," Ehsanullah Ehsan, a Taliban spokesman, told Reuters news agency.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Fazal Qureshi, chief editor at the Pakistan Press International news agency in Karachi said: "This operation is probably one of the longest operations which we have seen in Pakistan. But now in the last one hour or so we have been told that it will end shortly, it is probably in its final stages."
"These people are confined in one particular room, the commandos are advancing so whatever they have they will not be able to use the supplies." Qureshi added.
"They have surrounded and confined the terrorists in one building, some four or five of the terrorists have been already killed."
According to navy officials operation has been going on for hours because they are trying to capture the fighters alive.
Aaamir Latif, bureau chief, online news network, told Al Jazeera that "Earlier there were reports that the militants had taken hostages but navy sources have said that is not the case."
Taliban claim
Intelligence officials said that between 15 and 20 attackers were inside the base, and had attacked three hangars housing aircraft.
A military spokesman said two Pakistan Navy staff were killed in the attack.
"One of our officers and one Navy personnel have been martyred," Commodore Irfan ul Haq, a spokesman for the Pakistan Navy, told the AFP news agency. Five explosions were heard at the base ahead of the attack, according to Pakistani Express TV.
Yusuf Raza Gilani, Pakistan's prime minister, condemned the attack.
"Such a cowardly act of terror could not deter the commitment of the government and people of Pakistan to fight terrorism," Gilani said in statement.
Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack and threatened further attacks.
"It was the revenge of martyrdom of Osama bin Laden. It was the proof that we are still united
and powerful," Ehsan of Taliban told agencies by telephone from an undisclosed location on Monday.
"We had already warned after Osama's martyrdom that we will carry out even bigger attacks," he said,
referring to previous vows to avenge the killing of the al-Qaeda leader by US special forces three weeks ago.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/05/201152218582675282.html
/////////////
Militants attack Pakistani naval base in Karachi
Up to 20 insurgents assaulted the base from several sides, blowing up sensitive aircraft including a US-manufactured surveillance plane
Declan Walsh in Islamabad
guardian.co.uk, Monday 23 May 2011 06.13 BST
Pakistani military air base after an attack by militants, in Karachi
Photograph: Asif Hassan/AFP/Getty Images
Pakistani commandos continued to battle with heavily armed militants at a naval airbase in Karachi early on Monday after ten hours of fighting triggered by a Taliban assault to avenge the death of Osama bin Laden.
Blasts rang out after dawn as the military stepped up its counter-attack on insurgents inside the PNS Mehran base, just off one of the Karachi's busiest roads.
Late Sunday night up to 20 insurgents assaulted the base from several sides, blowing up sensitive aircraft including a US-manufactured surveillance plane and killing at least five people.
Television images showed flames and a plume of thick smoke billowing from the base as aircraft took fire, while bursts of gunfire and explosions rang out across the city, frightening residents.
A Pakistani Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility. "It was the revenge of martyrdom of Osama bin Laden. It was the proof that we are still united and powerful," Ehsanullah Ehsan told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.
The daring assault was a fresh embarrassment for the Pakistani military, three weeks after US Navy Seals travelling on five helicopters breached the country's air defences to carry out the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
The Taliban have not attacked such a sensitive facility since the February 2009 Taliban assault on army headquarters in Rawalpindi.
The interior minister, Rehman Malik, said the militants attacked from the rear of the base at around 10.30 on Sunday night.
The headed immediately for the aircraft hangers, where they destroyed two planes and a helicopter including an American Orion P-3C maritime surveillance plane, which Pakistan had received just last year. A jet fuel tanker also exploded.
"They were carrying guns, rocket-propelled grenades (RPG) and hand grenades. They hit the aircraft with an RPG," Navy spokesman Commander Salman Ali said.
Pakistani Special Services Group (SSG) commandos were dispatched to the base, supported by helicopters, triggering intense exchanges of gunfire that rang out across the city.
Fighting continued through the night with a fresh round of explosions in the early morning – eight in the space of thirty minutes - as commandos reportedly flung grenades tried to storm a hanger where the Taliban were holed up.
Four people were killed including three firefighters and one naval officer. Reports were unclear but up to five militants are thought to have been killed.
There were unconfirmed reports that a foreigner, possibly a Chinese national, had been taken hostage. The US embassy said no Americans were present.
"We have been able to confine them to one building and an operation is underway either to kill or capture them," said Malik.
Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani condemned the attack as a "cowardly act of terror".
Ehsanullah, the Taliban spokesman, said the attackers had plentiful stocks
of ammunition and food. "They can fight and survive for three days," he said.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/23/militants-attack-pakistani-naval-base-karachi
See also: .. 2008 ..
Analysis: Taliban resurgence —Najmuddin A Shaikh .. excerpt ..
Meanwhile, the Taliban have set up permanent courts in Mohmand Agency and these bodies are dispensing justice to supplicants. This suggests further erosion of state authority in the Tribal Areas. Reports in the US press claim that the number of foreign insurgents in the Tribal Areas is increasing and that in a reversal of past trends militants seeking martyrdom have now chosen to move to this area rather than go to Iraq. .. more ..
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=34237207
US: Afghan supply line fine, but drivers cite risk
By JASON STRAZIUSO and RAHIM FAIEZ – 1 day ago
A Pakistani man is seen standing next to burnt trucks for U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan after an attack by militants on the outskirts of Peshawar, the main city in the region that borders the lawless, militant-plagued tribal belt and is a key stop for vehicles traversing the famed Khyber Pass, Pakistan, Saturday, Dec. 13, 2008. Suspected militants attacked a terminal used by vehicles ferrying supplies to U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan early Saturday, the latest in a string of strikes on the critical and increasingly perilous supply route that snakes through northwest Pakistan. (AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad)
BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan (AP) — Traveling in a convoy of 30 supply trucks escorted by security guards, the young Afghan driver hauled bottled water through Afghanistan's dangerous south to a U.S. outpost in Helmand province.
Stanekzai then headed back to the main American base at Bagram — without an armed escort. Halfway home on the country's main highway Monday, he heard gunfire tear into his rig. He stepped on the gas and prayed.
"I was afraid. I was bracing for a rocket-propelled grenade, because they usually fire those, too, but fortunately they didn't," the 22-year-old said Tuesday, standing beside his pockmarked truck.
Attacks are trying to put the squeeze on supplies reaching U.S. and NATO troops, with attacks on trucks in both Afghanistan and the Khyber Pass of neighboring Pakistan. American commanders insist attacks have had a minimal impact, but they also say they are exploring new routes.
Gunmen have staged a series of raids on truck depots near the Pakistani city of Peshawar in recent weeks, killing several guards and burning hundreds of vehicles, including dozens of U.S.-bought Humvees destined for the Afghan army.
During the summer, militants attacked and burned dozens of U.S. supply trucks on Afghanistan's main highway.
Afghan and Pakistani truck drivers say their work is becoming increasingly risky, and
some are becoming wary of crossing Taliban-held areas despite their relatively high pay.
Because 75 percent of U.S. military supplies in Afghanistan come by road from Pakistan's
ports, a functioning supply line through the Khyber Pass is critical. .. more ..
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=34257687
Taliban claims responsibility for ongoing attack on naval facility in Karachi that has left at least 12 dead.
Last Modified: 23 May 2011 05:00
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=us7_hJofur4
At least 12 officials are reported to have been killed and 14 others injured in an ongoing attack by armed men on a military base in the Pakistani city of Karachi, according to Al Jazeera's sources.
Some of the attackers are still inside the base and commandos and marines are continuing to battle them several hours after the assault began, Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder said on Monday.
Irfan ul Haq, Pakistan navy spokesman, said that 11 navy officers and one paramilitary ranger have been killed.
At least a dozen men attacked the Mehran base, a key naval aviation facility, late on Sunday. Two maritime patrol aircraft were destroyed and at least nine people were also wounded in the assault.
"The navy was in a high state of alert," our correspondent said, adding that "the attack raises a lot of questions as to how such a large number of people, so well armed, could have actually gotten into the base".
Rehman Malik, Pakistan's interior minister, said the "terrorists" sneaked into the base from three points adjacent to residential areas in the city of 16 million people, whose port is a vital hub for NATO supplies bound for Afghanistan.
"A building in the premises is still under their occupation from where they are exchanging fire with our soldiers," Malik said on Monday.
"It is not just an attack on navy establishment, it is an attack on Pakistan," Malik added, warning that those who sympathise with the Taliban and al-Qaeda should instead "join hands with us to save our country".
Talat Hussain, a senior Pakistani journalist, told Pakistan's Dawn News that "We need to realise that this is not just an incident. The reality is that Pakistan is under attack, it is not just a security breach."
Ongoing operation
A spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban said that the team of militants they sent into Karachi's PNS Mehran naval base on Sunday night had enough supplies to survive a three-day siege.
"They have enough ammunition and food and they can fight and survive for three days," Ehsanullah Ehsan, a Taliban spokesman, told Reuters news agency.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Fazal Qureshi, chief editor at the Pakistan Press International news agency in Karachi said: "This operation is probably one of the longest operations which we have seen in Pakistan. But now in the last one hour or so we have been told that it will end shortly, it is probably in its final stages."
"These people are confined in one particular room, the commandos are advancing so whatever they have they will not be able to use the supplies." Qureshi added.
"They have surrounded and confined the terrorists in one building, some four or five of the terrorists have been already killed."
According to navy officials operation has been going on for hours because they are trying to capture the fighters alive.
Aaamir Latif, bureau chief, online news network, told Al Jazeera that "Earlier there were reports that the militants had taken hostages but navy sources have said that is not the case."
Taliban claim
Intelligence officials said that between 15 and 20 attackers were inside the base, and had attacked three hangars housing aircraft.
A military spokesman said two Pakistan Navy staff were killed in the attack.
"One of our officers and one Navy personnel have been martyred," Commodore Irfan ul Haq, a spokesman for the Pakistan Navy, told the AFP news agency. Five explosions were heard at the base ahead of the attack, according to Pakistani Express TV.
Yusuf Raza Gilani, Pakistan's prime minister, condemned the attack.
"Such a cowardly act of terror could not deter the commitment of the government and people of Pakistan to fight terrorism," Gilani said in statement.
Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack and threatened further attacks.
"It was the revenge of martyrdom of Osama bin Laden. It was the proof that we are still united
and powerful," Ehsan of Taliban told agencies by telephone from an undisclosed location on Monday.
"We had already warned after Osama's martyrdom that we will carry out even bigger attacks," he said,
referring to previous vows to avenge the killing of the al-Qaeda leader by US special forces three weeks ago.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/05/201152218582675282.html
/////////////
Militants attack Pakistani naval base in Karachi
Up to 20 insurgents assaulted the base from several sides, blowing up sensitive aircraft including a US-manufactured surveillance plane
Declan Walsh in Islamabad
guardian.co.uk, Monday 23 May 2011 06.13 BST
Pakistani military air base after an attack by militants, in Karachi
Photograph: Asif Hassan/AFP/Getty Images
Pakistani commandos continued to battle with heavily armed militants at a naval airbase in Karachi early on Monday after ten hours of fighting triggered by a Taliban assault to avenge the death of Osama bin Laden.
Blasts rang out after dawn as the military stepped up its counter-attack on insurgents inside the PNS Mehran base, just off one of the Karachi's busiest roads.
Late Sunday night up to 20 insurgents assaulted the base from several sides, blowing up sensitive aircraft including a US-manufactured surveillance plane and killing at least five people.
Television images showed flames and a plume of thick smoke billowing from the base as aircraft took fire, while bursts of gunfire and explosions rang out across the city, frightening residents.
A Pakistani Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility. "It was the revenge of martyrdom of Osama bin Laden. It was the proof that we are still united and powerful," Ehsanullah Ehsan told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.
The daring assault was a fresh embarrassment for the Pakistani military, three weeks after US Navy Seals travelling on five helicopters breached the country's air defences to carry out the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
The Taliban have not attacked such a sensitive facility since the February 2009 Taliban assault on army headquarters in Rawalpindi.
The interior minister, Rehman Malik, said the militants attacked from the rear of the base at around 10.30 on Sunday night.
The headed immediately for the aircraft hangers, where they destroyed two planes and a helicopter including an American Orion P-3C maritime surveillance plane, which Pakistan had received just last year. A jet fuel tanker also exploded.
"They were carrying guns, rocket-propelled grenades (RPG) and hand grenades. They hit the aircraft with an RPG," Navy spokesman Commander Salman Ali said.
Pakistani Special Services Group (SSG) commandos were dispatched to the base, supported by helicopters, triggering intense exchanges of gunfire that rang out across the city.
Fighting continued through the night with a fresh round of explosions in the early morning – eight in the space of thirty minutes - as commandos reportedly flung grenades tried to storm a hanger where the Taliban were holed up.
Four people were killed including three firefighters and one naval officer. Reports were unclear but up to five militants are thought to have been killed.
There were unconfirmed reports that a foreigner, possibly a Chinese national, had been taken hostage. The US embassy said no Americans were present.
"We have been able to confine them to one building and an operation is underway either to kill or capture them," said Malik.
Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani condemned the attack as a "cowardly act of terror".
Ehsanullah, the Taliban spokesman, said the attackers had plentiful stocks
of ammunition and food. "They can fight and survive for three days," he said.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/23/militants-attack-pakistani-naval-base-karachi
See also: .. 2008 ..
Analysis: Taliban resurgence —Najmuddin A Shaikh .. excerpt ..
Meanwhile, the Taliban have set up permanent courts in Mohmand Agency and these bodies are dispensing justice to supplicants. This suggests further erosion of state authority in the Tribal Areas. Reports in the US press claim that the number of foreign insurgents in the Tribal Areas is increasing and that in a reversal of past trends militants seeking martyrdom have now chosen to move to this area rather than go to Iraq. .. more ..
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=34237207
US: Afghan supply line fine, but drivers cite risk
By JASON STRAZIUSO and RAHIM FAIEZ – 1 day ago
A Pakistani man is seen standing next to burnt trucks for U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan after an attack by militants on the outskirts of Peshawar, the main city in the region that borders the lawless, militant-plagued tribal belt and is a key stop for vehicles traversing the famed Khyber Pass, Pakistan, Saturday, Dec. 13, 2008. Suspected militants attacked a terminal used by vehicles ferrying supplies to U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan early Saturday, the latest in a string of strikes on the critical and increasingly perilous supply route that snakes through northwest Pakistan. (AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad)
BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan (AP) — Traveling in a convoy of 30 supply trucks escorted by security guards, the young Afghan driver hauled bottled water through Afghanistan's dangerous south to a U.S. outpost in Helmand province.
Stanekzai then headed back to the main American base at Bagram — without an armed escort. Halfway home on the country's main highway Monday, he heard gunfire tear into his rig. He stepped on the gas and prayed.
"I was afraid. I was bracing for a rocket-propelled grenade, because they usually fire those, too, but fortunately they didn't," the 22-year-old said Tuesday, standing beside his pockmarked truck.
Attacks are trying to put the squeeze on supplies reaching U.S. and NATO troops, with attacks on trucks in both Afghanistan and the Khyber Pass of neighboring Pakistan. American commanders insist attacks have had a minimal impact, but they also say they are exploring new routes.
Gunmen have staged a series of raids on truck depots near the Pakistani city of Peshawar in recent weeks, killing several guards and burning hundreds of vehicles, including dozens of U.S.-bought Humvees destined for the Afghan army.
During the summer, militants attacked and burned dozens of U.S. supply trucks on Afghanistan's main highway.
Afghan and Pakistani truck drivers say their work is becoming increasingly risky, and
some are becoming wary of crossing Taliban-held areas despite their relatively high pay.
Because 75 percent of U.S. military supplies in Afghanistan come by road from Pakistan's
ports, a functioning supply line through the Khyber Pass is critical. .. more ..
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=34257687
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