Pakistan army storms its own HQ to end siege by Islamist fighters
Pakistani commandos were forced to storm their own headquarters on Sunday after gunmen raided the nerve centre of the country’s military establishment, taking 39 soldiers hostage.
The rescue operation, which began at 6am and successfully freed the captives, ended a crisis that had started 18 hours previously.
Suspected Taliban gunmen launched a brazen daylight attack on the army’s general headquarters (GHQ) in the city of Rawalpindi. The Pakistani authorities said that 10 gunmen made the assault.
They killed six soldiers and fought their way into one of the most sensitive and heavily-guarded sites in Pakistan.
Some of the attackers were disguised in military uniforms. A general and a colonel were among the soldiers they killed.
Five of the gunmen died as they attacked the first gate to the large compound in the centre of Rawalpindi. At the second perimeter entrance, there was a fire-fight that lasted about 45 minutes. The attackers, who were armed with grenades and automatic weapons, then seemed to disappear for several hours before they emerged inside a building in the headquarters compound, holding scores of hostages.
Their captives included soldiers and civilian employees of the army. The garrison city of Rawalpindi, about 30 minutes’ drive from the capital Islamabad, is ringed by checkpoints and should be one of the best-protected places in the country....
...It was the third major attack in Pakistan in the past week alone.
On Monday, a suicide bomber blew himself up inside a United Nations building in Islamabad, while a car bomb on Friday in the city of Peshawar killed 49 people...
Pakistan army storms its own HQ to end siege by Islamist fighters - Telegraph
