Sunday 8 June 2014

Pakistan: Fresh firing at Karachi's Jinnah airport, security operation resumes



security forces on Monday relaunched the operation at Karachi airport after fresh firing was heard from inside, said a paramilitary spokesman. 
"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.
An AFP reporter at the scene said gunshots could be heard inside the airport and that rangers and elite commandos were rushing inside.
Heavily armed militants had launched an assault on Jinnah International 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 on Monday.
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.
However, according to media reports, Tehreek-e-Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack.

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