Twelve military personnel martyred in operation at PNS base

Twelve military personnel have been martyred since Taliban militants attacked a major naval air base in Karachi, sparking gunbattles, a navy spokesman said Monday.
“Twelve security personnel have been martyred in the ongoing operation. Eleven of them are Navy officials and one is a (paramilitary) Ranger,” Commander Salman Ali told AFP.
More than 12 hours later, officials were unable to confirm that the attack on the PNS Mehran was over. By mid-morning, fire crews had doused towering flames over the base.
Up to 20 militants crept into the base in the teeming port city of Karachi from three sides under the cover of night late Sunday, officials said, triggering gunbattles and a series of explosions.
An AFP reporter heard blasts and intermittent barrages of gunfire on Monday, and helicopters flying overhead. Dozens of ambulances queued outside the base, which is about 10 kilometres (six miles) from Karachi’s international airport.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the “terrorists” sneaked into the base from three points adjacent to residential areas in the city of 16 million people, whose port is a vital hub for NATO supplies bound for Afghanistan.
“A (single-storey) building in the premises is still under their occupation from where they are exchanging fire with our soldiers,” Malik told reporters.
“It is not just an attack on a navy establishment, it is an attack on Pakistan,” Malik added, warning that those who sympathise with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda should instead “join hands with us to save our country”.
A spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, who have stepped up attacks claiming to avenge the May 2 death of bin Laden, said the militia had dispatched 15 to 20 suicide bombers equipped to fight for a week.
“We had already warned after Osama’s martyrdom that we will carry out even bigger attacks,” Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location.
“Our people present inside are all fedayeen (suicide bombers). They are 15 to 20 in number and were sent after proper planning. They can fight for one week and until they embrace martyrdom,” he said.
The Al-Qaeda leader was killed by US commandos in a garrison town north of Islamabad, in a raid that humiliated Pakistan’s security establishment. The militants’ attack deep inside Karachi underlined the military’s vulnerability.
“They have destroyed two P-3C Orion aircraft,” Navy spokesman Commander Salman Ali told AFP.
The attack was also likely to raise further concerns about the safety of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, which reportedly number more than 100.
The New York Times said that a mere 15 miles (24 kilometres) away from PNS Mehran, Pakistan was believed to keep a large depot for nuclear weapons that can be delivered from the air.
Salman Ali told AFP that no foreigners were on the base at the time of the attack and said it was not thought to be a hostage situation.
“No known hostages are there but I can’t say if they (the attackers) have taken one or two hostages inside.”
Speaking to the ARY television station, Ali said: “The attackers first fired rockets. The terrorists also used small bombs and now they are firing with sophisticated weapons. They are inside and still resisting.”
The assault was the fourth on the navy in Karachi in a month. Three bombings in late April killed nine people, including eight naval personnel.