Ten dead in militants Pakistan attack

Heavily armed militants tried to storm Pakistan’s army headquarters Saturday, with six soldiers and four rebels killed in the audacious attack near the capital Islamabad, officials said.

Six insurgents armed with automatic weapons and grenades drove up to the compound and shot their way through one checkpost in the garrison town of Rawalpindi, before being stopped by security forces at a second post.Two militants managed to flee during the fierce firefight, and were still on the run despite helicopter gunships circling overhead and commandos manning a security perimeter around the military headquarters, army officials said.The attack comes amid a surge in insurgent strikes, as analysts say the Islamist Taliban militia try to deter an army offensive into their tribal stronghold along the mountainous border with Afghanistan.

Army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said the militants were dressed in army uniform and “were armed with sophisticated weapons and grenades.” “They came in a van and tried to enter from gate one to gate two in the sensitive area. They were stopped and now the situation is under our control,” he said in an interview on private TV channel Geo.His deputy Colonel Attique ur Rehman told AFP: “Six soldiers were martyred in the attack.” The dead are reported to include a senior army officer.

The firefight came a day after a devastating suicide car bomb killed 52 civilians at a busy market in the northwest city of Peshawar.Government ministers blamed the Taliban, who have also vowed to avenge the death of their leader Baitullah Mehsud in a US drone missile attack in August.

Another military official in Islamabad said there were at least six attackers in the assault on the heavily fortified army command centre.“Four were killed. Two are still missing. The hunt is going on,” said the official with Pakistan army’s media wing.He blamed the attack on Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the umbrella militant movement based in the semi-autonomous tribal belt and blamed for most the attacks which have killed more than 2,200 people here in two years.

An AFP journalist at the scene of Saturday’s gunbattle reported that the firefight began just before midday and lasted about an hour and a half, with helicopters ferrying the dead militants away after the battle ended.

-AFP