Taliban siege ends at Pakistan military base
Pakistani commandos have regained control of a military base after Taliban suicide attackers occupied it for 15 hours, killing a dozen people.
The Pakistani Taliban said the raid in Karachi, which also destroyed two US-supplied spy planes, was in revenge for the death of Osama bin Laden.
Between 10 and 15 insurgents armed with grenades, rockets and automatic weapons stormed Naval Station Mehran yesterday before splitting into smaller groups, setting off explosions and hiding in the sprawling facility.
The raid was one of the most audacious in years of militant violence in Pakistan. The insurgents' ability to penetrate the high-security base rattled a military establishment already humiliated by the unilateral American raid on Bin Laden, and raised the possibility they had inside help.
It will also lead to more questions over the safety of Pakistan's nuclear weapons. In 2009, Islamist terrorists stormed army headquarters close to the capital, holding hostages for 22 hours.
But unlike the attack in Karachi, the attackers then failed to deeply penetrate the complex.
At least 11 navy personnel and one paramilitary ranger were killed, while 14 security forces were wounded.
The attack resembled the 2008 siege of Mumbai, India, and a number of other similar raids in Pakistan in which heavily armed squads of insurgents go out in teams, occupy a property and fight to the death.
It was one of the first such strike in Karachi, the country's largest city and economic hub.
The unilateral US raid on bin Laden's compound in the north-west Pakistani garrison city of Abbottabad has triggered a strong backlash against Washington as well as rare domestic criticism of the armed forces for failing to detect or prevent the American operation. Pakistani leaders insist they had no idea bin Laden had been hiding in Abbottabad.
This is the third major attack the group has claimed since the bin Laden killing, including a car bombing that slightly injured American consulate workers in the city of Peshawar and a twin-suicide attack that killed around 90 Pakistani paramilitary police recruits.
The raid began with at least three loud explosions. Authorities sent in scores of navy and police commandos to battle the attackers, who responded with gunfire and grenades.
At least two P-3C Orions, maritime surveillance aircraft given to Pakistan by the US, were destroyed.
The United States handed over two Orions to the Pakistani navy at a ceremony at the base in June 2010 attended by 250 Pakistani and American officials.
Karachi, a city of around 18 million people, has not been spared the violence sweeping the country, despite being in the south far from the north-west where militancy is at its strongest.
In April, militants bombed three buses taking navy employees to work, killing at least nine people.
The Pakistani Taliban and other militant groups have little direct public support, but the army and the government have struggled to convince the people of the need for armed operations against them.
The militants' identification with Islam, strong anti-American rhetoric and support for insurgents in Afghanistan resonates with some in the country.
