KARACHI- Taliban bandits armed with rockets and explosives have invaded a major naval base of air in the heart of the largest city of Pakistan, destroying two US surveillance aircraft made and killing five staff.
Officials said the attack brazen in Karachi, which came three weeks after the assassination of U.S. of Osama bin Laden, continued for eight hours after beginning late Sunday when up to 15 activists slipped under cover of night.
About 10 people were injured and as the dawn spread, fire crews battled to extinguish towering flames which had increased at the base, PNS Mehran Naval Aviation of the Pakistani Navy headquarters in the bustling city of port of Karachi.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that the "terrorist" infiltrators in the base of three zones adjacent to residential in the city of 16 million people, including the port is a hub of vital for supplies destined for the Afghanistan NATO.
"A building on the premises is still under their occupation from which they are exchange of fire with soldiers", Malik told journalists Monday.
"The situation is addressed delicately in securing the assets, minimize human losses and defeat the terrorists completely," he said.
"It is not just an attack on a marine facility, it is an attack on Pakistan," Malik added, warning that those who sympathize with the Taliban and Al-Qaida should rather "work with us to save our country."
The Pakistani Taliban, who have stepped up attacks since the death on 2 may of bin Laden, claimed the attack in Karachi.
"We had already warned after the martyrdom of Osama that we will carry out attacks even more important," spokesman Taliban Ehsanullah Ehsan told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location.
The Al-Qaeda Chief was killed by us commandos in a garrison town north of Islamabad, in a raid which humiliated Pakistan in security. Deep inside Karachi militants attack underlined the vulnerability of the army.
"They took position in one place." I hope that soon we will be able to catch, dead or alive, "Navy spokesman Commander Salman Ali said AFP eight hours after the attack began autour 10: 45 am (1745 GMT) on Sunday."
An AFP correspondent heard several explosions more and gunfire Monday at the outset, that officials said that fire crews had managed to bring a huge fire in the building under control.
Ali said four Navy and paramilitary personnel had been killed in exchanges of fire with the militants who, said, numbered from 10 to 15.
"They destroyed two P-3 C Orion aircraft", he added.
The United States has delivered two maritime patrol aircraft to PNS Mehran only in June.
"The attackers first printed rockets," Ali said of early at the station of television ARY.
"The terrorists has also used small bombs, and now they are fired with sophisticated weapons." They are inside and still resist, "says.
Ministry official host Sharfuddin Memon of the southern province of Sindh of which Karachi is the capital, said "more than 10 terrorists" were the base and at least 10 people were injured.
In October 2009, militant Taliban besieged the staff of the army in the garrison town of Rawalpindi two days, killing 22 people and raising serious questions about why it took the military so long to put an end to the aggression.
Karachi is the financial capital of Pakistan and its port is used by NATO to send supplies to approximately 130,000 carried foreign soldiers against the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan.
The city recently saw an outbreak of attacks against the armed forces. On 28 April, four members of the Navy and a passing motorcyclist were killed in a bomb attack, two days after four other people were killed in bus bombings Navy.
Last week, a Saudi diplomat was shot dead as he led Saudi Arabia Consulate in a few days in Karachi after the attackers threw grenades on the mission.
On Sunday, thousands of people demonstrated in Karachi to demand an immediate end to missile us strikes in the tribal belt in northwestern Pakistan on the Afghan border and a block on the supply of NATO through the country.
Despite the anger in Pakistan the murder of Osama bin Laden, US President Barack Obama said in a BBC interview aired Sunday that he was ready to order a mission similar if another high value target was discovered in Pakistan, or anywhere elsewhere.
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