Suspected militants dressed in army uniforms attacked Pakistan’s army headquarters yesterday, killing six guards and triggering a battle in which four gunmen were killed, military officials said.
The brazen attack on the tightly guarded headquarters in the city of Rawalpindi came as the army prepares a major offensive against Pakistani Taliban militants in their northwestern stronghold on the Afghan border.
The gunmen drove in a white van to a main gate at the sprawling complex, opening fire and throwing at least one grenade when challenged, security officials said.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The gunmen exchanged fire with soldiers for about 40 minutes. Four gunmen and six guards were killed but two of the gunmen escaped, military officials said.
“Two terrorists are still missing, a search operation is on,” said a military official who declined to be identified.
Another military official said some firing had been heard and a helicopter was helping in the search for the two gunmen. Dawn television said the fleeing gunmen had taken two hostages.
Al-Qaeda-linked Islamist militants have launched numerous attacks in Pakistan over the past couple of years — most aimed at the security forces and government and foreign targets.
The militants have attacked military targets in Rawalpindi before.
Television pictures showed the militants’ white van, its doors open, where the gunmen abandoned it by concrete barriers outside the gate.
The attack came a day after a suspected suicide bomber killed 49 people in the city of Peshawar.
Early this year, militants pushed to within 100km of Islamabad, raising fears for nuclear-armed Pakistan’s stability.
An exasperated US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the government appeared to be “abdicating” to the militants. The US needs Pakistani help against militants crossing into Afghanistan.
In late April, Pakistani forces launched a sustained offensive in the Swat valley, largely clearing Taliban from the region.
The militants suffered another big blow on Aug. 5, when their overall leader, Baitullah Mehsud, was killed in an attack by a missile-firing US drone aircraft in South Waziristan.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS