Article

2009-10-10 India-Pakistan

Suspected militants attack Pakistani army HQ

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by tipper 2009-10-10 04:01|| || Front Page|| [11134 views ] Top
File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan

#1 Only suspected militants?

Posted by Richard of Oregon 2009-10-10 10:53|| 2009-10-10 10:53|| Front Page Top

#2 Coulda just been planning a really big BANG! for Mom's party. Hard to tell from the scattered evidence.

Posted by lotp 2009-10-10 11:24|| 2009-10-10 11:24|| Front Page Top

#3 Update:

SUSPECTED Pakistani Taliban militants who attacked Pakistan's army headquarters on Saturday are holding several hostages in offices adjacent to headquarters, security officials say.

"They are holding some of our soldiers," one security official said.

Another security official said: "It's a hostage situation. They're demanding the release of some of their fellows."

Posted by tipper 2009-10-10 11:40|| 2009-10-10 11:40|| Front Page Top

#4 DEBKA says their objective is to take control of the nuclear arsenal from Pakistani military leaders. Serious implications, if so.

Posted by lotp 2009-10-10 13:49|| 2009-10-10 13:49|| Front Page Top

#5 I do NOT expect that the firing instructions are printed on the bomb casings.

All mouth no balls.

Posted by Redneck Jim 2009-10-10 14:19|| 2009-10-10 14:19|| Front Page Top

#6 A Brigadier and Lt Colonel killed.

Paks are making noises about no intelligence compromised. Which probably means it has been.

Posted by phil_b 2009-10-10 14:35|| 2009-10-10 14:35|| Front Page Top

#7 I do NOT expect that the firing instructions are printed on the bomb casings.

All mouth no balls.

Of course the firing instructions aren't printed on the bomb casings, RJ. That's all right, Iran will pay well for them anyway.

Posted by lotp 2009-10-10 16:12|| 2009-10-10 16:12|| Front Page Top

#8 pretty good storyline:
Once at the second checkpoint Saturday, the militants opened fire again and lobbed grenades at guards. Witnesses said bursts of gunfire continued to ring out for several minutes, punctuated by the sound of grenade blasts. Overhead, Pakistani military helicopters and Cobra gunships hovered.

While the gun battle raged on, some of the Army's top generals and commanders were trapped inside the compound's buildings. There were unconfirmed reports that explosives were found in the attackers' van.

Police and soldiers established a cordon around the gunmen to keep them from fleeing. By early afternoon, security officials reported that four gunmen had been killed. Among the military personnel killed were a brigadier general and a lieutenant colonel responsible for security at the compound, Abbas said.

Early Saturday evening, military officials said they had traced the location of the gunmen at large to a security building within the compound, where they were holding hostage several security officers and civilian employees assigned to the army headquarters. Pakistani commandos surrounded the building, military officials said.

"We hope to save as many lives as possible," Abbas said. "It all depends on how the operation goes."

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which appeared to be the latest in a string of strikes aimed at retaliating against the government's plans to launch an long-threatened offensive to crush the fundamentalist militants in their primary base of operation: South Waziristan along the Afghan border.

Be a nice time for the Paks to get really serious about their sovereignty and quit f*cking around

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2009-10-10 18:12|| 2009-10-10 18:12|| Front Page Top

#9 Be a nice time for the Paks to get really serious about their sovereignty and quit f*cking around

I think they have and that's why this happened.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2009-10-10 18:44|| 2009-10-10 18:44|| Front Page Top

#10 really? The Pak Army is not the ISI, and they apparently consider the conscripts as fodder. Only thing that might agree with you is the Talibs bagged a Brig and a Lt. Col? When they smite a couple Madrassas as the prelim training grounds and destroy a couple ISI-built training camps, I might agree

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2009-10-10 18:54|| 2009-10-10 18:54|| Front Page Top

#11 I'm not saying the whole country is marching in lock step like a well oiled machine. But what they've done in Swat and South Waziristan are the most serious efforts to deal with the problem and they have exposed the divisions in the defence establishment as well as the country at large. This attack is evidence of that split. The Paks are putting real chips on the table. Whether or not they win the bet is up in the air, but they deserve credit for making the effort.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2009-10-10 19:06|| 2009-10-10 19:06|| Front Page Top

#12 I give credit for the attempts, but given the Pak proclivity for doublespeak and inflated heroics (see: Pak vs India) I find their body counts... off. If they wanted to get the pirate Maulana-FM stations off they air, there's WWII tech to do that.

The splits are real, I agree, and until some enterprising Officer decides to upset the corrupt apple cart (a disturbing scenario in itself) I remain a Pak critic.

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2009-10-10 19:15|| 2009-10-10 19:15|| Front Page Top

#13 BTW - I would love nothing more than the Pak Army clearing their side of the Jihadis and Taliban factories, but that ain't happening. A sovereign state based on Islam and Jihad against Hindus and Infidels can't do it.

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2009-10-10 19:22|| 2009-10-10 19:22|| Front Page Top

#14 Audacious and cheeky.

But it ended pretty much the way I thought when I saw the headline: gate unbreached and all attackers KIA.

Posted by gromky 2009-10-10 22:21|| 2009-10-10 22:21|| Front Page Top

23:57 USN, Ret.
23:55 trailing wife
23:52 trailing wife
23:47 Jumbo Slinerong5015
23:46 Pappy
23:33 3dc
22:32 USN, Ret.
22:21 gromky
22:06 Barbara Skolaut
22:05 KBK
22:04 Thing From Snowy Mountain
22:00 Barbara Skolaut
21:55 KBK
21:43 lotp
21:29 lotp
20:48 Hellfish
20:43 Iblis
20:34 Hellfish
20:33 Hellfish
20:09 badanov
19:41 Cromert
19:37 phil_b
19:28 phil_b
19:27 .5MT