Pakistan, Taliban attack Karachi airport: at least 24 dead

KARACHI – An attack on the Karachi international airport. The largest city in Pakistan. E ‘at least 24 dead – including security agents and attackers – the terrorist action at the airport, shortly after claimed by the Taliban.

The bloody armed attack launched by a commando of the Tehreek-and-Taliban Pakistan movement (TTP) began when fifteen militants infiltrated, entering from three different points, in the cargo area of ​​the Jinnah international airport, where two suicide bombers blow up.

During the first firefight with the security forces, the TTP militants set fire to a building in the area of ​​the old port, the fire brigade failed to arrive and the flames developed.

At the time of the attack there were about 700 passengers in the airport who were evacuated without problems. Pakistani TV stations showed flames and columns of smoke throughout the night. The army press office in Rawalpindi denied that the militants had set fire to an aircraft, stating that it was instead an administrative building. The general damage is huge, and even some aircraft (including two of the Pia and Airblue companies) have been damaged.

A statement released by ISPR later confirmed that the terrorists had been “killed and the airport freed”. But at dawn they heard more shots at the airport. The DawnNews television reported it. In the new shooting a ranger was guarded at the airport.

The country has faced for years the so-called Pakistani Taliban, ‘Tehreek-e-Taliban’. In recent days there had been protests in the city over the arrest in London of the leader of the powerful MQM party, Altaf Hussain, who controls Karachi.

08 June 2014