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| Karachi airport attack: Pakistan Taliban claim responsibility for airport terror attack | Karachi airport attack: Pakistan Taliban claim responsibility for airport terror attack |
| (about 3 hours later) | |
| The Pakistan Taliban have claimed responsibility for a jolting, deadly attack on Karachi's airport that led at least 28 people dead - including 10 militants. | |
| The group said it launched the assault in revenge for a US drone attack that killed its leader while a senior official said several of the fighters appeared to be foreign. | |
| The attack on the airport and the claiming of responsibility by the Taliban will present another challenge for Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, whose government has been involved in faltering efforts to establish a ceasefire and peace agreement with the militants. | The attack on the airport and the claiming of responsibility by the Taliban will present another challenge for Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, whose government has been involved in faltering efforts to establish a ceasefire and peace agreement with the militants. |
| Meanwhile, one report claimed the attackers had been trying to hijack a plane, but were prevented from doing so. If that proves to be the case, it will intensify fears about Pakistan's ability to guard supposedly secure facilities such as the airport that came under attack. | |
| The attack on Karachi's Jinnah International Airport was launched at around midnight by 10 gunmen, some wearing military uniform, who shot their way into the facility, located in the east of the port city. Ten hours later, with smoke billowing from the premises as a result of as yet unexplained fires, security forces were still conducting patrols to ensure all the militants had been killed or captured. | |
| A spokesman for the Taliban, Shahidullah Shahid, told Pakistani media the attack had been carried out in revenge for a US drone strike last November in North Waziristan that killed its then leader, Hakimullah Mehsud. The spokesman also said it was to protest over the conditions being endured by Taliban prisoners in Pakistani jails. | A spokesman for the Taliban, Shahidullah Shahid, told Pakistani media the attack had been carried out in revenge for a US drone strike last November in North Waziristan that killed its then leader, Hakimullah Mehsud. The spokesman also said it was to protest over the conditions being endured by Taliban prisoners in Pakistani jails. |
| Tariq Azim, a spokesman for Mr Sharif, said initial inquiries suggested several of the militants killed were foreign. He said they may have been Chechen or Uzbek. | Tariq Azim, a spokesman for Mr Sharif, said initial inquiries suggested several of the militants killed were foreign. He said they may have been Chechen or Uzbek. |
| He said they had been found to be carrying water, biscuits and dried chick peas. "They were preparing for a long siege and were intending to stay there for some time," he told The Independent. | He said they had been found to be carrying water, biscuits and dried chick peas. "They were preparing for a long siege and were intending to stay there for some time," he told The Independent. |
| The main operation to kill the militants lasted up to five hours, but reports said gunfire subsequently broke out at around 9.30am. It was unclear whether this was the result of Pakistani security forces discharging their weapons or something else. | The main operation to kill the militants lasted up to five hours, but reports said gunfire subsequently broke out at around 9.30am. It was unclear whether this was the result of Pakistani security forces discharging their weapons or something else. |
| "Ten militants aged between 20 and 25 have been killed by security forces," a spokesman for the paramilitary Rangers force told the Reuters news agency. "A large cache of arms and ammunition has been recovered from the militants." | |
| Pakistan's paramilitary force said that at least some of the attackers were ethnic Uzbeks. Pakistani officials often blame foreign militants holed-up along the Afghan border for staging attacks alongside the Pakistani Taliban around the country. Reports said three of the fighters detonated suicide vests while the other seven were killed by the security forces. | |
| Meanwhile, the Washington Post newspaper quoted one unidentified senior Pakistani intelligence official who claimed the militants were trying to hijack a plane but had been stopped from doing so. Three international flights were due to leave the airport between 11pm on Sunday and 1am on Monday, bound for Sharjah, Bangkok and Dubai. | |
| For a number of hours, all flights to Karachi were diverted to other airports. However, officials said no said no aircraft had been damaged during the attack, updating initial reports that suggested the militants had set fire to some planes. | |
| The assault followed a bomb attack in Taftan, a district on the border with Iran, that killed at least two dozen Shia pilgrims. Many more people were injured in the attack on the hotel where the pilgrims were staying. |