"28 killed in militant attacks in Pakistan" Associated Press June 09, 2014
KARACHI, Pakistan — Gunmen disguised as police guards attacked a terminal at Pakistan’s busiest airport Sunday night with machine guns and a rocket launcher, killing at least 13 people as explosions echoed into the night, officials said. A separate suicide bombing in the country’s southwest killed 23 Shi’ite pilgrims returning from Iran, authorities said.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack on the Jinnah International Airport in Karachi, named after the founder of Pakistan, nor the attack carried out by four suicide bombers in Baluchistan province. However, the attacks come as peace talks with the local Taliban faction and other militants have floundered in recent weeks.
Also see: I Blew It in Baluchistan
The airport attack raged for roughly five hours Monday morning in Karachi, a sprawling port city. Officials said all the passengers had been evacuated. Heavy gunfire and multiple explosions could be heard coming from the terminal, used for VIP flights and cargo. A major fire rose from the airport, illuminating the night sky in an orange glow and casting jets as silhouettes.
Maybe it was the powder keg?
The fate of the militants was unclear early Monday.
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"Taliban vow to expand attacks after Pakistan airport siege" by Declan Walsh | New York Times June 10, 2014
LONDON — Only weeks ago, the Pakistani Taliban appeared to be on the ropes. Violent rivalries split the insurgency in two. Peace talks with the government collapsed. Military jets pounded militant hideouts in the tribal belt.
So with a point to prove, the Taliban hit back, and on Monday it threatened to launch more attacks.
Ten militant fighters, disguised as government security forces and armed with rocket launchers and suicide vests, stormed the Karachi airport Sunday night. They came with food, water, and ammunition, in apparent preparation for a long siege but also with big ambitions: perhaps to hijack a commercial airliner, government officials said Monday, or to blow up an oil depot or to destroy airplanes on the tarmac.
OMG!
First they hijacked the missing Malaysian jet and flew it to Pakistan, and now this garbage coming from the Zionist War Pre$$!
Paramilitary guards pinned the fighters down in a cargo terminal, in a firefight that blazed through the night. After five hours, as stranded passengers waited anxiously in parked airplanes, it was over, with 29 people dead and the cargo building on fire. All 10 of the militants were killed.
How convenient all the militants are dead.
Yet the audacious assault shook the country to its core. It showed how, despite the Taliban’s challenges and deepening divisions, their reach has extended far from their tribal redoubt into Pakistan’s biggest city.
With several jihadists from Uzbekistan among the dead, the attack also demonstrated how the Taliban can still draw on an international militant network to conduct sophisticated operations against high-profile targets across the country.
And it may be a sign of more violence to come.
“This marks an escalation of the war,” said Adil Najam, the dean of the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University. “And it shows that this is going to be a long war.”
I'm ready for takeoff.
The spokesman for the main Pakistani Taliban faction, Shahidullah Shahid, said as much, calling the strike in Karachi “a response to the recent attacks by the government.” And even as he said the group was still interested in talking peace with the government, he promised that, in the meantime, “We will continue carrying out such attacks.”
The chief minister of Sindh province, Syed Qaim Ali Shah, told reporters that in addition to the 10 attackers, 19 other people had died at the airport, including 11 members of the Airport Security Force, five local airline officials, and three others.
“They were well trained,” he said of the assailants. “Their plan was very well thought out.”
Major General Rizwan Akhtar, the director general of a paramilitary force that is deployed in Karachi, said the attackers appeared to be of Uzbek origin. Akhtar said the attackers came in two groups of five each. Three attackers detonated their explosive vests, while seven were killed by security forces, he said.
The assault was the most ambitious of its kind in Pakistan since Islamist militants attacked a navy air base in central Karachi in 2011.
Although elite commandos moved quickly to counter the airport assault, many Pakistanis expressed shock that militants could penetrate such a prominent target so thoroughly and raised questions about why the attack had not been prevented by the military’s powerful spy service, the Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence.
Because I suspect that CIA glove is involved, or this is another hoax!
The Taliban said the assault on the Jinnah International Airport in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, was in revenge for the November killing of the militant group’s leader, Hakimullah Mehsud, in a US drone strike.
A post regarding those will be taking off shortly.
Mehsud’s death was the last major killing of a militant commander under the controversial drone program, the Associated Press reported. The program has largely wound down in Pakistan, and there has not been a drone strike in the country since December.
Pakistani officials said the escalation of insurgent violence is a potential risk for the entire country.
‘‘Everywhere is a threat,’’ warned Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan. ‘‘Every area is a target, every building is a potential target.’’
Sunday’s attack could push the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif closer to a decision on whether to battle the militants in earnest.
Related: Tanking This Pakistan Post
And who benefits? Who wanted him to call down further force in the region?
Sharif’s government has advocated a policy of trying to negotiate with militants to end the insurgency, which has continued for years, but the talks have foundered recently.
The Taliban called off a cease-fire they had declared during the negotiations. Since then, Pakistani troops have hit hideouts with airstrikes in the troubled northwestern region, killing dozens of suspected militants.
Many of the militant groups draw support from Punjab province, the home base of Sharif, and critics question whether the prime minister’s party has the political will to take on the militants there.
Well, he sent in tanks.
A further decline in security in Pakistan, which is a nuclear power, could affect the stability of neighboring Afghanistan as US troops and other international combat forces prepare to withdraw from that country.
Every time you see them link the two you know something is up.
And the attack in Karachi, Pakistan’s business center, could discourage foreign investment at a time when its economy is struggling.
Terror is the excuse used to punish them.
Karachi has been the site of previous attacks, including the one in 2011 against a naval base that lasted for 18 hours and killed 10 people, deeply embarrassing the military. Security officials have been worried that a breakdown in negotiations could result in a spike in violence in Karachi, which has seen the Pakistani Taliban gain a major foothold in the city in recent years.
Been flying in, 'eh?
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"Taliban attack Pakistani airport again amid military raids" by Declan Walsh and Salman Masood | New York Times June 11, 2014
LONDON — Retaliating against a new wave of military airstrikes, Pakistani Taliban gunmen on Tuesday attacked security forces at Karachi’s international airport for the second time in two days, underscoring their capacity to create mayhem in the country’s largest city.
The assault, in which at least two gunmen opened fire on a guard post at the airport perimeter, caused no casualties and ended with the gunmen fleeing into a nearby slum. By contrast, at least 36 people died in the first attack on Sunday, which lasted through the night.
But the brief shootout did cause Jinnah International Airport, Pakistan’s busiest airfield, to temporarily close for the second time in 48 hours. And coming hours after Pakistani air force jets struck a militant sanctuary in the tribal belt, it compounded the sense that Pakistan’s war against the Taliban was rapidly escalating.
“The military wants to sort the Taliban out as soon as possible,” said Imtiaz Gul, executive director of the Center for Research and Security Studies in Islamabad. “They want to set things right in the tribal areas.”
Fixing the tumultuous tribal belt, however, has at least momentarily become linked to the Taliban’s program of bold attacks in mainstream Pakistan.
The second assault on the Karachi airport started Tuesday when at least two gunmen riding motorcycles opened fire on a security post manned by the Airport Security Force, a paramilitary force that guards the airport and that lost at least 11 members in the Taliban’s previous assault.
The shooting occurred on the perimeter of the force’s training and residential complex, which is beside the airport, barely a mile from the main terminal.
Guards at the checkpoint returned fire and the attackers fled into a nearby slum area, where they were pursued by paramilitary troops who had rushed to the scene of the attack. Several television journalists followed the soldiers into the slum, drawing criticism on social media from Pakistanis who accused them of endangering the operation.
A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack within hours, calling it retaliation for Pakistani military airstrikes in the northwestern mountains earlier that morning.
“We are back to ASF academy,” said the spokesman, Omar Khorasani, referring to the Airport Security Force, via a Twitter account that is believed to be his own.
With Karachi troubled by a sense of nervous uncertainty since Sunday’s attack, senior security officials tried to play down the episode.
“It was not an attack as such,” said Colonel Tahir Ali. “They came and fired. We cannot take any risk.”
The firefight came on the heels of Sunday’s firefight, when a team of 10 attackers slipped into the airport’s cargo bay and VIP area, where they fought a blazing battle with security forces through the night.
The death toll rose to 36 on Tuesday after the authorities recovered the bodies of seven cargo workers, charred beyond recognition during a fire in a storage unit where they had tried to hide Sunday.
Flights to and from Karachi were suspended for a time after Tuesday’s shootout, but resumed later.
None of the international airlines flying to Karachi have announced any change to their service, but several said they were watching the situation.
Attention is now turning to the military response.
Tuesday’s airstrikes targeted militant compounds in the Tirah Valley, a remote part of the Khyber tribal district, where the Taliban has allied with Mangal Bagh, a local warlord.
The alliance concerns the Pakistani military because of Tirah’s proximity to the historic Khyber Pass, a major border crossing with Afghanistan, and the army has mounted several attacks on Taliban positions in the district so far this year.
A military spokesman said that 25 militants had been killed in the airstrikes, but there was no independent confirmation of the toll.
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"Uzbek militants say they took part in Pakistan attack; Signals greater cooperation among terrorists" by Rebecca Santana | Associated Press June 12, 2014
ISLAMABAD — An Uzbek militant group operating in Pakistan’s northwest tribal areas says it played a role in the attack on the Karachi airport earlier this week, in a disturbing sign of the increased cooperation between militant groups in Pakistan.
The news came the same day that the United States broke its five-month hiatus on drone strikes with an attack in Pakistan tribal areas that killed three militants, officials said.
SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors militant activity, reported the claim by the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan on Wednesday, and it was also detailed on the group’s website.
Related: SITE Institute
IS ISRAEL CONTROLLING PHONY TERROR NEWS?
It is found in my newspaper, yeah.
‘‘We would like to emphasize that this martyrdom operation was carried out as the revenge to the latest full-scale bombardments and night attacks with fighter jets by Pakistan Apostate Army,’’ the statement read.
Militants laid siege to the airport Sunday in a five-hour attack that ended with 36 dead, including the ten attackers.
The attack, coming against a vital transportation hub in a city key to Pakistan’s economy, shocked the country. Gunmen then attacked a police training facility Tuesday near the airport. No one was wounded, and the estimated two to three gunmen escaped. But it compounded the sense that Pakistan is struggling to deal with its stubborn militancy problem.
The Pakistani Taliban initially claimed responsibility for the incident. A spokesman for the militant group said Wednesday that they had worked with the Uzbek group but did not give any details.
‘‘Our brother organization, IMU, played [a] role in the attack on the Karachi airport,’’ said a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, Shahidullah Shahid, in a call.
That's when I hung up.
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The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan was formed in 1991. It later broadened its ambitions to seeking an Islamic state across Central Asia.
The US State Department designated the group as a foreign terrorist organization in 2000. Its leadership is believed to be based in North Waziristan, a part of Pakistan’s tribal regions where many militant groups are located, and it has a relationship with both the Afghan Taliban and the Pakistani Taliban, according to the State Department....
Meanwhile, two Pakistani intelligence officials said that an American drone fired two missiles at a militant facility in the North Waziristan tribal area near the Afghan border, killing at least three insurgents. The officials said they did not have information on who exactly was killed in the strike. They did not want to be identified because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
This marked the first drone strike by the CIA-led program in Pakistan since Christmas. Due to stricter rules on the use of drones, diplomatic sensitivities and the changing nature of the Qaeda threat, the number of drone strikes has dwindled.
I will not be happy until there is not one.
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And once up in the air:
"Airstrikes batter militant hideouts
ISLAMABAD — Pakistani military jets pounded militant hideouts in the northwestern tribal region bordering Afghanistan early Sunday morning, officials said, killing as many as 100 militants in the second strike on the region since a deadly attack on the Karachi airport a week ago. One of those killed was Abu Abdul Rehman al-Maani, who is believed to have helped orchestrate the five-hour airport siege last Sunday, said two officials (AP)."
Related: Pakistani jets target militant hide-outs at border
Pakistani airstrikes hit Taliban strongholds
The action Sunday and Monday, with a combined reported death toll of at least 167 people, suggested that the military’s Waziristan campaign will initially be waged mainly from the air. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, in a brief speech to the Pakistani parliament Monday, said his government was committed to restoring peace in Pakistan. Sharif said that while there may have been different opinions about a military operation and peace negotiations in the past, “this chapter now has to be closed.”
Two weeks later, the tanks went. No chance for peace now.
Pakistan police in deadly clash with preacher’s followers
Qadri followers, he's based in Canada, coup attempt or pressure?
He's anti-Taliban?
Pakistani political leader is released
Pakistani officials impose curfew amid clashes
"Pakistanis flee tribal area as curfew eased" Associated Press June 19, 2014
BANNU, Pakistan — Residents of a Taliban-infested region in northwest Pakistan where the military launched a major offensive began to flee Wednesday after authorities lifted a curfew, officials said.
Yes, an "infested" region -- as if those human beings are vermin or pestilence.
The military says the long-awaited offensive will target local and foreign militants who use the North Waziristan region as a base to attack Pakistan. The US has pushed Pakistan repeatedly to take action against militant groups in the region that target Afghan and NATO troops in Afghanistan.
Gee, I wonder who could have possibly been behind the airport attack.
So far, the offensive has largely relied on airstrikes, but the easing of the curfew to allow residents to leave could indicate a more intense ground offensive is in the making.
A disaster management authority official, Dil Nawaz Khan, said the agency did not have an exact count of how many people left after the curfew was eased but estimated it was hundreds of families.
Roughly 63,000 people left North Waziristan in the weeks before the offensive began because of airstrikes and fears of a larger offensive. Authorities expect 130,000 more people to be displaced in the next days.
It's up to half-a-million now from what I read yesterday.
A drop in the bucket with the other 50 million worldwide.
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