Gunmen disguised as security guards and wearing suicide vests attack Pakistan's largest international airport leaving at least 13 dead and an airliner burning on tarmac

• As many as ten heavily armed terrorists attacked Jinnah International Airport in Karachi on Sunday evening - killing at least nine people
• The airport, the largest in Pakistan, has been evacuated and all flights have been diverted as the fighting continues into Monday morning
• The Airport Security Force sealed off the airport and army commandos have been called in to battle the terrorists who are armed with explosives
• Live pictured broadcast by Pakistani media showed an aircraft ablaze on the tarmac
• 13 people are reported dead - including four of the gunmen - and up to 15 others are injured
• No group has claimed responsibility, but immediate suspicion has fallen on Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan

Daily Mail (UK) | 8 June 2014

At least 13 people have been killed after militants - disguised as security guards - stormed a terminal at Pakistan's largest airport in Karachi and tried to seize a passenger plane on Sunday night.

No group has claimed responsibility, but immediate suspicion has fallen on a faction of the Taliban known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.

Heavy gunfire and at least two large explosions could be heard coming from the terminal at Jinnah International Airport as authorities scrambled to secure the area.

Blaze: Fire illuminates the sky above a terminal at Karachi Airport on Sunday night where at least nine are dead in fighting between security forces and heavily armed gunmen linked to a faction of the Taliban

Burning wreck: Aircraft appear to be ablaze on the tarmac of Jinnah International Airport - Pakistan's largest commercial airport 

Pakistani security personnel surround the Karachi airport following an attack by unknown gunmen disguised as police guards who stormed a terminal used for VIPs and cargo on Sunday night

Smoke rises from the Karachi airport terminal after the militants' assault on Sunday night

Armed response: The attack happened at a terminal not generally used for commercial flights but for special VIP flights and for cargo

The gunmen attacked a terminal not generally used for commercial flights, but for special VIP flights and for cargo. 

The Airport Security Force (ASF) sealed off the airport and the Pakistani military - some arriving by helicopter - were called in to help with the fight and commandos isolated the gunmen into two different groups.

Security officials said the militants were carrying AK47 assault rifles and rocket propelled grenades, and some were wearing suicide vests.

So far the bodies of seven ASF officials and two civilians - an employee of the Civil Aviation Authority and another from the state-run Pakistan International Airlines - have been brought to Jinnah Hospital so far, along with 15 injured. 

Four terrorists have also been killed, said ISPR Spokesman Asim Bajwa. A rocket launcher and four SMGs were recovered from the slain terrorists.

Shaukat Jamal, a spokesman for the Airport Security Force, an arm of the country's police, said army commandos confined the attackers to a maintenance area, and that they hadn't been able to get onto the tarmac.

Pakistani security forces, some arriving by helicopter, surrounded Jinnah International Airport ¿ one of the country¿s busiest and the gateway to the major port city ¿ and commandos had isolated the gunmen into two different groups

Jamal said the police and army commandos were still fighting with the attackers. 

An official who spoke to journalists near the airport said at least some of the militants were wearing Airport Security Force uniforms and all were strapped with explosives. 

He said one of them tried to capture a vehicle used by the Civil Aviation Authority and when a guard shot at him, the explosives strapped to his body went off. The official said another attacker also blew up after being shot at by security forces. 

The country's military said in a statement that all the passengers had been evacuated and that four gunmen have been killed.

At least two domestic flights have been diverted and all flight operations had been suspended at the airport. A spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority said the airport would be closed until at least Monday night.

Attack: Pakistani commandos get ready to enter the airport terminal in Karachi following attacks by unknown gunmen on Sunday night

Armed response: Pakistani security troops rush to Karachi airport terminal following attacks by unknown gunmen on Sunday night

Three planes are said to have been damaged with one set on fire by a grenade strike. As many as ten gunmen infiltrated the airport’s old terminal from the Fokker Gate either by cutting the perimeter fence or using forged identity cards. 

Pakistan TV has reported smoke billowing from the main building and a number of injured people, their faces covered in blood, could be seen.

Fires raged around two passenger planes parked on the runway.

Immediate suspicion fell on Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, which has been fighting an Islamist insurgency for more than a decade and has carried out a number of spectacular attacks in Karachi.

The city, Pakistan’s largest, has been a hiding place for a number of senior Taliban and Al Qaeda figures. Peace talks between the government and Taliban that began this year have stalled, with the military recently resorting to air strikes on militant hideouts, killing at least 75 people.

A radical faction linked to tribal leader Khalid Mehsud is widely considered the most important of the various groups that comprise the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, which has fought the government since 2007 to implement its version of sharia law.

His forces recently split from the main Taliban body and threatened new violence. An airport spokesman said the attack was focused near a terminal not generally used for commercial flights but for VIPs and cargo flights.

Attacks have taken place before on airports in Pakistan, but this is believed to have been the first time that a civilian airport rather a military one has been attacked.

At least one plane filled with passengers was unable to take off as the attack began. Farooq Sattar, a senior figure with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement political party, was on board, and said the aircraft reached the runway only to turn back as the sounds of gunfire exploded around them. 

‘They have told us we are safer on board and so the doors will stay shut,’ he said. ‘But this aircraft is full of fuel and so are the other planes here. If, God forbid, the terrorists come here then there could be a terrible fire.’ 

Witnesses said they heard more than a dozen blasts and sporadic gunfire as Army personnel rushed to join the firefight. 

Gunfire could be heard outside the airport into the early hours of Monday morning.

 

Regional Instability: Jinnah International Airport is in Karachi, Pakistan, the largest city in the South Asian nation which borders long-time adversary, India

According to the Tribune newspaper of Pakistan, the army has established a perimeter around the airport and the government has declared an emergency in Karachi and across the city's hospitals.

However, it is still unclear at the moment who is behind the attack and there has been no apparent claim of responsibility.

Sarmad Hussain, an official with the state-run Pakistan International Airlines, said three of the dead were from the airport's security forces.

'I was working at my office when I heard big blasts - several blasts - and then there were heavy gunshots,' he told The Associated Press after escaping the building. He said he and a colleague jumped out one of the windows to get away, and his colleague broke his leg.

According to initial reports, heavily armed assailants opened fire at the airport terminal used to transport pilgrims to Mecca, which is known as the Haj.

It is the most spectacular attack on the city since gunmen attacked the Mehran naval base there in 2011, killing ten personnel and destroying two aircraft in a 17-hour siege. The airport is seen as the gateway to Pakistan for many British and other international businessmen with flights arriving daily.

The southern port city had been braced for bloodshed and violence since the arrest last week in London of Altaf Hussain, the leader of  the Muttahida Qaumi Movement party, a major force in Karachi. 

Mr Hussain lives in self-imposed exile in London, and has run his party from a nondescript office block in the northern suburb of Edgware since 1992 when he claimed political asylum. He addresses mass rallies in Karachi by a conference telephone connected to loudspeakers. 

His arrest on suspicion of money laundering sparked outrage and the threat of widespread violence with several buildings linked to British businesses put under guard. Officials said they were investigating possible links between the arrest and those behind the airport shoot-out.

Karachi airport is under attack. According to news reports coming in from Pakistan, up to a dozen gunmen have entered the terminal and are fighting security services