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Pakistan commandos free 30 at army HQ, ending siege

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-10-11 12:32

Soldiers take their positions outside the main gate of the Pakistan army headquarters after an attack by armed men in Rawalpindi, on the outskirts of Islamabad, October 10, 2009. [Agencies]

Pakistani commandos raided their own army's headquarters Sunday to free 30 people held hostage by Islamist fighters who staged a brazen attack on the compound while wearing military uniforms.

Three captives and four hostage-takers were among those killed in the 22-hour-long drama that ended with the capture of the attackers' ringleader, an army spokesman said.

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The audacious assault on the nerve-center of the country's military establishment showed the strength of militants allied with al-Qaida and the Taliban ahead of a planned army offensive on their heartland in South Waziristan along the Afghan border. It also signaled that any push there would be met with more attacks across Pakistan.

The government said the siege had steeled its resolve to go through with the South Waziristan offensive, calling it "inevitable." The United States and Pakistan's other Western allies want the country to take more action against insurgents also blamed for soaring attacks on US and NATO troops in Afghanistan.

Explosions and gunshots rang out just before dawn Sunday as commandos moved into a building in the complex, while a helicopter hovered in the sky. Three ambulances were seen driving out of the heavily fortified base close to the capital, Islamabad.

Two hours after the raid began, two new explosions were heard. The army said it was "mopping up" the remaining insurgents.

Five heavily armed militants took the hostages after they and about four other assailants attacked the main gate of the army headquarters Saturday, killing six soldiers, including a brigadier and a lieutenant colonel. Four of the attackers, who were wearing army uniforms, were killed. 

No group claimed responsibility, but authorities said they were sure that the Pakistani Taliban or an allied Islamist militant group were behind the strike. The city is filled with security checkpoints and police roadblocks.

Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said 20 of the hostages had been kept in a room guarded by a militant wearing a suicide vest who was shot and killed before he managed to detonate his explosives.

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