PESHAWAR: Militants fired rockets into the airport of Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar late yesterday, killing four people, wounding dozens more and forcing the airport to close, officials said.
Volleys of gunfire erupted around the airport, attached to a Pakistan Air Force base, after the initial attack and the military sealed off the area to launch a search operation, witnesses and civilian officials said.
Pakistani television footage showed a vehicle with a smashed windscreen, another damaged car, bushes on fire and what appeared to be a large breach in a wall.
Peshawar is the main gateway to Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal belt on the Afghan border, where the Taliban and Al Qaeda-linked groups have strongholds.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the Pakistani Taliban and other Islamist militia have claimed responsibility for past attacks on military air bases and routinely carry out attacks in Peshawar.
“Three rockets were fired. Two landed inside Peshawar airport and another hit a vehicle (outside),” Imran Shahid, a senior police official, said.
Pakistan’s air force said a rocket attack had damaged the outer wall of the airfield, which lies near a residential area and military barracks in Peshawar.
“No terrorist has been able to penetrate inside (the air field),” Group Captain Tariq Mahmood, a spokesman for the Pakistan Air Force, said in a statement. “Security forces were fully alert and are in control of the situation.”
Mahmood added there had been no casualties among the Pakistan Air Force or damage to equipment during the incident.
Three rockets also hit a nearby residential area, a military official said.
“We have repulsed the attack on the airport, everything is now under control,” the military official added.
Medical officials said four people were killed and more than 50 wounded.
Farhad Khan, a spokesman for Khyber Teaching Hospital near the airport, said four people died and that 50 wounded people had been brought in after the attack.
Doctor Umar Ayub confirmed the death toll.
Pervez George, spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority, confirmed that the airport had been closed and flights cancelled, but said there had been no damage to the airport building or terminals.
“If needed, we will divert incoming flights to Islamabad and (the eastern city of) Lahore,” he said.
“The airport is closed and the lights have been turned off,” he added.
Pakistani Islamist militants have carried out previous attacks on military airbases in the nuclear-armed country.
In August, 11 people were killed when heavily armed militants wearing suicide vests stormed an air force base in the northwestern town of Kamra.
In May 2011, it took 17 hours to quell an attack on an airbase in Karachi claimed by the Taliban.
AFP & REUTERS
