Taliban Intensifies Attacks to Avenge Bin Laden Death With Pakistan Siege
Pakistan Forces Retake Karachi Navy Base After Attack
Asif Hassan/AFP/Getty Images
A Pakistani paramilitary soldier poses with the victory sign outside a naval air base following an attack by militants in Karachi.
A Pakistani paramilitary soldier poses with the victory sign outside a naval air base following an attack by militants in Karachi. Photographer: Asif Hassan/AFP/Getty Images
Pakistan Forces Retake Karachi Navy Base After Attack
Asif Hassan/AFP/Getty Images
Pakistani army turcks carrying soldiers arrive for an operation against militants at a naval air base following an attack by the Pakistani Taliban in Karachi.
Pakistani army turcks carrying soldiers arrive for an operation against militants at a naval air base following an attack by the Pakistani Taliban in Karachi. Photographer: Asif Hassan/AFP/Getty Images
The Pakistan Taliban carried out its biggest strike against a government military base since 2009 in a mission to avenge the killing of Osama bin Laden that left 10 government troops dead after a 16-hour battle in Karachi.
Four Taliban were killed in the fight at the navy installation, Interior Minister Rehman Malik told reporters in Pakistan’s largest city. The militants "were 20 to 22 years of age and wore Western clothes with suicide jackets beneath them," Malik said. They were armed with rocket launchers and grenades, he said.
The Pakistani Taliban pledged to attack government and military installations after U.S. forces killed al-Qaeda leader bin Laden in a raid in Abbottabad, 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Islamabad, on May 2 local time. Tensions between the two countries rose, as the U.S. questioned whether Pakistani officials had protected bin Laden and Pakistan protested the violation of its territory.
The insurgents in Karachi damaged or destroyed U.S.-made surveillance planes in the biggest strike against a leading Pakistani military installation since a raid on the army’s Rawalpindi headquarters in October 2009.
“This attack shows that the Taliban have sympathizers and insiders in the security establishment,” said Talat Masood, a retired army lieutenant general and security analyst in Islamabad. “It also shows that they have become more powerful and sophisticated in their planning and attacks.”
Planes Targeted
Two P-3C Orion aircraft were targeted in the attack, navy spokesman Irfan Ul Haq said. Replacing the two blown-up surveillance airplanes, made by Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT) with a total estimated value of $150 million, may be difficult for Pakistan if the U.S. decides to limit foreign aid.
The aircraft are a four-engine turboprop design used for sea and ground surveillance. U.S. production for the Navy ended in 1990 after 650 Orions rolled off the line. About 435 are still flying -- with about 130 in the U.S. Navy inventory.
Six Americans, working as trainers and technicians, and 11 Chinese nationals were inside the base at the time of the attack and were rescued early on, Malik said yesterday. He said two militants may have escaped, putting the total number of guerrillas who participated at six, fewer than claimed by the Taliban.
“Fifteen of our fighters entered the naval air base and we don’t expect them to return,” Ehsanullah Ehsan, a spokesman for the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, said by telephone from an undisclosed location. “They are there to kill. Our issue with Pakistan is its secular policies and friendship with America.”
Explosions, Gunfire
The strike began with several explosions at the Mehran naval base around 11 p.m. on May 22, followed by gunfire.
None of the six American contractors who help maintain the aircraft at the base were injured during the attack, Pentagon spokesman Dave Lapan said in Washington. The Americans were employed by Lockheed Martin, based in Bethesda, Maryland, and SAIC Inc. (SAI), based in McLean, Virginia, he said.
The Taliban may have hit the navy station for its role in helping conduct surveillance against movements by militant groups along Pakistan’s coast, said Bahukutumbi Raman, an Indian security analyst and retired counter-terrorism chief of India’s main intelligence agency.
Pakistan’s naval air unit, including the U.S.-supplied Orion aircraft, has been providing “air surveillance to prevent any sea-borne intrusions of al-Qaeda and to detect any terrorist plans for attacks on ships bringing supplies for the NATO forces in Afghanistan,” Raman wrote in an e-mailed analysis.
U.S.-Pakistan Tensions
Tensions between the U.S. and Pakistan have escalated with American officials saying they were worried that Pakistan’s intelligence agency maintains ties to guerrillas fighting American-led forces in Afghanistan. The U.S. military says its war against the Taliban is hindered by Pakistan’s failure to shut down militant havens.
Also straining relations is Pakistan’s opposition to U.S. drone attacks on Taliban targets, which have killed civilians, and American insistence that the strikes continue. American missiles killed four people near the Afghan border yesterday, the Associated Press reported, citing officials it didn’t name.
Pakistan’s leaders have rejected accusations they aren’t doing enough to defeat insurgents. The army’s offensives against the local Taliban movement and allied guerrillas have triggered retaliatory bombings and gun battles in cities nationwide that the government says have killed thousands of Pakistani citizens and security personnel.
May 13 Bombings
Twin bombings on May 13 at a Pakistani paramilitary police academy killed 80 people in what the Pakistan Taliban said was in part revenge for the killing of bin Laden and a precursor to attacks against the U.S.
The PNS Mehran Base is 10 kilometers from Karachi’s Quaid- e-Azam International Airport. It provides all the logistic and administrative support to the aviation unit of the Pakistan navy, according to the navy’s website.
On Oct. 10, 2009, the Pakistani military freed 39 hostages after soldiers stormed a building in the army’s Rawalpindi headquarters, ending a 22-hour siege by militants.
The Karachi attack comes less than a month after militants attacked navy buses in the city, killing four people and injuring 56. Two days later, four navy personnel and one civilian were killed in a bomb attack on a navy bus in the financial capital.
To contact the reporters on this story: Khurrum Anis in Karachi News at kkhan14@bloomberg.net; Haris Anwar in Islamabad at hanwar2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Naween Mangi at nmangi1@bloomberg.net; Peter Hirschberg at phirschberg@bloomberg.net
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