PAKISTAN: Naval base retaken after militant siege

Record ID: 353397

  • Title: PAKISTAN: Naval base retaken after militant siege
  • Date: 24th May 2011
  • Summary: KARACHI, PAKISTAN (MAY 23, 2011) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Urdu) PAKISTAN'S INTERIOR MINISTER REHMAN MALIK SAYING: "The best thing our naval intelligence and paramilitary rangers did was that they evacuated the foreigners at the time when terrorists were still firing. The foreigners were 11 Chinese and six Americans who were here to deliver training sessions about surveilla
  • Embargoed: 8th June 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Pakistan, Pakistan
  • Country: Pakistan
  • Reuters ID: LVA3G9E7W8SRFBW7RY2YN9MVT9UV
  • Story Text: Troops recaptured a Pakistani naval air force base on Monday (May 23) after a 16-hour battle with Taliban gunmen who had launched their brazen attack to avenge the killing of Osama bin Laden.
    Interior Minister Rehman Malik said just six militants were believed involved in the attack on the PNS Mehran base in Karachi late on Sunday (May 22), destroying or damaging two aircraft and laying siege to a main building in one of the most heavily guarded bases in the country.
    Malik said the militants, aged between 20 and 25, used two ladders to scale the walls of the base and jumped in by cutting barbed wire.
    "I, along with the naval chief and security forces, have visited every corner. They used two ladders to scale the walls of the base, one from this side and the other from inside the alley. Then they jumped in. One camera (CCTV) is on the extreme left side, the other is on right side, where the wall curves about 25 degrees. They crossed into the base from that side. We have their footprints," he said.
    Malik said at least three militants were killed in battle that followed.
    "I confirm three of them (militants) are dead while the body of a fourth was believed to be buried under the rubble of a collapsed wall. Two others were seen fleeing when the team of Lieutenant Yasir attacked them and fired at them," he told a news conference.
    He said the militants had used guns and grenades in their attack on the base, which is ringed with a concrete wall with about five feet of barbed wire on top.
    According to a navy spokesman, at least 10 military personnel were also killed and 20 wounded in the assault that started at 10.30 p.m. on Sunday (1730 GMT).
    Malik said 17 foreigners were inside the base at the time and all had been evacuated safely.
    "The best thing our naval intelligence and paramilitary rangers did was that they evacuated the foreigners at the time when terrorists were still firing. The foreigners were 11 Chinese and six Americans who were here to deliver training sessions about surveillance aircraft," he said.
    The Pakistan Taliban, who are allied with al Qaeda, said they had staged the attack to avenge bin Laden's death.
    The assault casts fresh doubt on the military's ability to protect its bases and is a further embarrassment following the surprise raid by U.S. special forces on the al Qaeda leader's hideout north of Islamabad on May 2.
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