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| India-Pakistan |
| Militants storm PNS Mehran in Karachi |
| 2011-05-23 |
| [Dawn] At least 10 people were maimed as blasts and gunshots rang out at the sprawling base used by the Air Force and Navy in the centre of Bloody Karachi, where the local government confirmed that the base was under "terrorist attack". An AFP news hound saw scores of soldiers and navy commando reinforcements entering the base, where flames and smoke could be seen rising into the night sky. An AFP photographer heard seven blasts and periodic bursts of gunfire. There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Pakistain's military has long been on the frontline of gun, suicide and kabooms blamed on the country's main Taliban faction and other Al-Qaeda-linked hard boy groups. The Taliban have recently repeatedly threatened Western and Pak 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. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned Sunday's attack, and ordered his interior minister to Bloody Karachi and to "coordinate the security efforts being taken by the civil and military officials," his office said in a statement. Commander Salman Ali, front man for the Pakistain Navy, told AFP that members of the security forces were fighting against gunnies. "An exchange of fire with gun-hung tough guys is continuing. Their firing is fading away and we have launched a search operation," he said. "It's a terrorist attack. More than 10 gun-hung tough guys are inside. They have attacked a navy air station located in a Pakistain Air Force base," said home ministry official Sharfuddin Memon from the southern province Sindh. "One of the four aircraft inside the premises has been damaged," he said, adding that at least 10 people had been maimed. "I have no information whether they are the attackers or Navy personnel."In October 2009, Talibs beseiged 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. Bloody Karachi, Pakistain's financial capital whose sea port is used by NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants... 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 killed in a hail of bullets on his way to work at his country's consulate in the city, just days after attackers threw grenades at the diplomatic mission. Pakistain'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 B.O.Obama said he stood ready to order a similar mission to that which killed bin Laden if another high-value target was discovered in Pakistain, or any other country. "We are very respectful of the illusory sovereignty of Pakistain, 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. Earlier on Sunday, thousands demonstrated in Bloody Karachi to demand an immediate end to US missile strikes in Pakistain's northwestern tribal belt on the Afghan border and urge the blocking of NATO supplies passing through the country. Activists from the Tehreek-e-Insaf (Movement for Justice) led by former cricket hero Imran Khan ... who isn't your heaviest-duty thinker, maybe not even among the top five... held a two-day sit-in outside the Arabian Sea port, urging the government to end its cooperation with Washington's "war on terror." |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #4 I was the one here wondering about the possibility of nukes because I thought they might have tried to make a nuclear-armed antisubmarine weapon of some kind. |
| Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain 2011-05-23 18:02 |
| #3 There is a lull in the operations because the attackers are in a building with sensitive assets. There is some speculation that it could be nukes. "Sensitive assets" could be anything from cryptological equipment and codes, to intelligence assets (including infomation as to Pakistan's ASW assets are in relation to where India's submarines are), to battle plans. I very highly doubt it would be nukes. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2011-05-23 17:15 |
#2 Another question on the LongWar Journal:The one question I have is that aren't the Chinese supposed to keep off the bases where the latest US equipment is being kept? These PN P3's were upgraded recently with the latest AEW suite. How secure is our equipment if Chinese engineers are working in the same hangars? |
| Posted by: Water Modem 2011-05-23 02:25 |
#1 A comment on the FT.COM article quoted in Long War Journal: Posted by Victor at May 22, 2011 9:10 PM ET: |
| Posted by: Water Modem 2011-05-23 02:21 |