Troops recaptured a Pakistani naval air force base on Monday after a 15-hour battle with as few as five Taliban gunmen who had launched their brazen attack to avenge the killing of Osama bin Laden.
Troops recaptured a Pakistani naval air force base on Monday after a 15-hour battle with as few as five Taliban gunmen who had launched their brazen attack to avenge the killing of Osama bin Laden.
Well-placed sources in the Pakistani security agencies believe the Sunday night attack targeting the Karachi headquarters of the Pakistan navy, that killed at least 14 personnel of the Pakistan Navy and Pakistan Rangers, was a jointly coordinated terrorist operation conducted by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan and al-Qaeda to avenge the killing of Osama bin Laden. Both the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan and al-Qaeda had threatened recently to avenge Osama bin Laden’s killing in separately issued messages.
The May 22 fidayeen attack targeting the Navy Base, PNS Mehran, at the PAF Faisal Base in Karachi is the fourth such attack against the Pakistani Navy since 2008. Interior minister Rehman Malik said the militants, aged between 20 and 25, used two ladders to scale the walls of the base and jumped in by cutting barbed wire.
PNS Mehran is the navy’s first Naval Air Station which was commissioned to support Fleet Operations. The latest addition in the Air Arm was Lynx helicopter and P-3C Orion Maritime Patrol aircraft. At least two of the Orion aircrafts were destroyed in the Taliban raid. The P-3C Orion is an anti-submarine and maritime surveillance aircraft. It is also used for anti-surface warfare.
This four-engine carrier costs US$36 million or over Rs3 billion.
The aircraft was parked at the Pakistan Air Force Faisal Airbase where a large number of transit movement as well as VVIP movement by civil, military and foreign aircrafts are a routine matter.
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