Militants storm Pakistan naval air base, four dead

KARACHI - Gunmen armed with rockets and explosives stormed a major Pakistani naval air base, triggering gunbattles that killed four navy staff on Monday three weeks after the US killing of Osama bin Laden.

Around 10 people were wounded and towering flames rose over PNS Mehran in the centre of Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, where the military and government confirmed that the base was under "terrorist attack".

An AFP reporter saw swarms of soldiers and navy commando reinforcements pile into the base as smoke rose into the night sky. Over a period of several hours, an AFP photographer heard nine blasts and periodic bursts of gunfire.

Fighting was still continuing almost five hours after the attack began.

There was no claim of responsibility but Pakistan's military has long been on the frontline of attacks blamed on the Taliban and other Al-Qaeda-linked militant groups that have killed more than 4,350 people in four years.
The Taliban have recently stepped up threats against Western and Pakistani government targets to avenge the killing of bin Laden by US Navy SEALs in the garrison city of Abbottabad near the capital Islamabad on May 2.

Officials estimated that up to 15 militants crept up to the base on three sides, using the cover of night to approach seemingly undetected through neighbouring civilian residential areas and through trees and foliage.

"The attackers first fired rockets," Navy spokesman Commander Salman Ali told ARY television station, denying any staff had been taken hostage but conceding that a long-range Orion aircraft had been destroyed.

Last June, the United States delivered two P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft to PNS Mehran.

"The terrorists also used small bombs and now they are firing with sophisticated weapons. They are inside and still resisting. They have destroyed an aircraft," he added, around three hours after the ! attack b egan.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned the assault, and ordered his interior minister to Karachi to "coordinate the security efforts being taken by the civil and military officials," his office said in a statement.

Ali said four Navy personnel including one officer had been killed and nine others wounded.
"The operation is still going on. There are believed to be 10 to 15 terrorists. We are being extremely cautious for the safety of our assets," he told private TV channel GEO.

Home ministry official Sharfuddin Memon from the southern province Sindh said "more than 10 terrorists" were inside the base and at least 10 people had been wounded, but could provide no further details.

In October 2009, Taliban militants besieged the army headquarters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi for two days, killing 22 people and raising serious questions over why it took the military so long to put down the assault.

Karachi, Pakistan's financial capital whose sea port is used by NATO to ship supplies to the estimated 130,000 US-led foreign troops fighting the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan, has recently seen a spike in attacks on the military.
On April 28, four naval personnel and a passing motorcyclist were killed in a bombing, two days after four others were killed in navy bus bombings.

Last week, a Saudi diplomat was shot dead as he drove to the Saudi consulate in the city of 16 million people, just days after attackers threw grenades at the mission.

Pakistan's seemingly powerful security establishment was left humiliated by the discovery and killing of the Al-Qaeda terror chief in a unilateral American Navy SEAL raid that has rocked relations with wary ally Washington.

In an interview with the BBC broadcast on Sunday, US President Barack Obama said he stood ready to order a similar mission to that which killed bin Laden if another high-value target was discovered in Pakistan, or any other country.
"We are very respectful of the sovereignt! y of Pak istan, but we cannot allow someone who is actively planning to kill our people or our allies' people, we can't allow those kinds of active plans to come to fruition without us taking some action," he added.

On Sunday, thousands of people demonstrated in Karachi to demand an immediate end to US missile strikes in Pakistan's northwestern tribal belt on the Afghan border and call for a block on NATO supplies passing through the country.

Activists from the Tehreek-e-Insaf (Movement for Justice) led by former cricket hero Imran Khan held a two-day sit-in outside the Arabian Sea port, urging the government to end its cooperation with Washington's "war on terror".