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Politics : New FADG. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: kumar who wrote (4121)	5/23/2011 2:08:15 PM
From: kumar	Respond to of 4152

Taliban attacks Pak naval base, destroys anti-India spy planes Agencies Tags : Pakistan naval base, Taliban attack, Karachi attack Posted: Mon May 23 2011, 09:04 hrs Karachi: Pakistani army commandos enter a naval aviation base following an attack by militants in Karachi. (AP) Taliban's 16-hour siege of Pakistan Navy's key Mehran airbase here came to an end after the elite commandos backed by hundreds of paramilitary personnel and helicopters shot dead four heavily armed militants after an intense battle. Two of the militants managed to escape in the general confusion. But before they were silenced, the handful of Taliban gunmen, wearing suicide vests, destroyed Pakistan's two front line P3C Orion US acquired maritime spy planes and killed 10 security men including an officer and some firemen. Three weeks after the killing of al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack which they described as "suicide operation" to avenge his death. "They do not want to come out alive. They have gone there to embrace martyrdom," Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told foreign agencies from an undisclosed location in northwest Pakistan. The 17 foreigners, including 11 Chinese and six Americans, who were trapped during the night and day long gun battle, were also safely rescued. A sombre, but quite loud, Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik rushed to the area and was the one to announce to waiting newsmen here that the "the siege has been brought to an end." Malik said those killed included four firemen, three Special Service Group (SSG) personnel and two rangers while another 15 officials were injured. "Reports that the militants had taken foreigners as hostages were all incorrect," he said. Initial reports had said that a group of 15-20 militants had stormed into the sprawling naval complex last night in the worst assault on a military base since the Army Headquarters was besieged in October 2009 in Rawalpindi. But Malik clarified that the security forces had killed four militants and bodies of three had been recovered. "I can confirm that we have two complete bodies and one without a head who blew himself up. A fourth terrorist was also in the building where the militant blew himself up," Malik said adding two could have escaped in the melee. Malik said, he has seen the bodies of the attackers who were dressed in black and looked "like 'Star Wars' characters". Armed with rocket launchers, assault rifles and explosive strapped to their bodies, the Taliban militants stormed into the Naval base at 22:40 local time by cutting through the barbed wires of the base's perimetre wall, which houses all the fighting assets of the Pakistan Navy including spy planes, helicopters and Harpoon anti-ship missiles. Mehran, while an important base, is not far from another vital military installation in the teeming port city. About 15 miles away is the Masroor airbase of the PAF which is believed to be a large depot for nuclear weapons that can be delivered from the air. Meanwhile, terming the Taliban attack on the Mehran naval air base as a "big security lapse", Pakistani defense and political analysts today said that "insiders" were facilitating the militants in their deadly agenda and asked the government and military to wake up to this. But Malik, who had earlier described the attack as not being against military installations but against Pakistan itself, refused to accept the daring attack as a big security lapse. In a sharp dig at political elements who had sought to capitalise on bin Laden's death by holding prayers for him including in the National Assembly, Malik told them it was now clear that people, who were hired killers for the al-Qaeda or Tehreek-e-Taliban and other militant groups, were not friends of Pakistan and wanted to destabilise the country. "I appeal to people who pray for these killers in the National Assembly or hold sit-ins to now see the truth and help the government fight these terrorists," he said. Malik was dispatched to Karachi by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to monitor the situation. The Firefight It took all of 16 hours to quell the terrorists after they brazenly stormed into Pakistan navy's key Mehran airbase in the heart of the port city of Karachi, but not before the Taliban militants destroyed two highly priced US-made surveillance aircraft. Pakistan army's elite Special Service Group and naval commandos backed by helicopters hunted down the militants, who stormed into the sprawling naval complex last night in the worst assault on a military base since the Army Headquarters was besieged in October 2009 in Rawalpindi. The terrorists in a well coordinated attack sneaked into the complex, housing US-acquired P-3C Orions, long-range maritime reconnaissance planes and Harpoon anti-ship missiles and were locked in continuing gun battle with the security forces. The US Navy has put the cost of the hi-tech eye-in-the-sky spy planes, which were destroyed in the attack, at $36 million each – these are mostly used to snoop on India and act as the first line of defence for Pakistan in case India were to launch an attack. The United States had handed over the two Orions to the Pakistani navy at a ceremony at the base in June 2010 attended by 250 Pakistani and American officials, according to the website of the US Central Command. It said by late 2012, Pakistan would have eight of the planes. Gilani has convened the meeting of Defence Committee of the Cabinet on May 25 to review and assess national security in the aftermath of present challenges posed by the acts of terrorism. Yesterday's attack was the third attack on the Navy, weeks earlier two buses taking Naval personnel for work were sprayed with gun fire by the militants. In the incident on April 28, at least four Pakistan Navy personnel and a civilian were killed and eight other people were wounded in a bomb attack targeting a navy bus here. The bus was coming from PNS Mehran and was taking the navy personnel to Dockyard. Similarly on April 26, at least four people were killed and 56 others were injured when two buses carrying Pakistan Navy personnel came under bomb attacks here. The Taliban and al-Qaeda have vowed to avenge bin Laden's killing by carrying out attacks in Pakistan. President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani strongly condemned the terrorist attack. Gilani said such "cowardly acts of terror could not deter the commitment of the government and people of Pakistan to fight terrorism".