Pakistani security troops arrive at Karachi's airport following attacks by unknown gunmen on Sunday.Associated Press
KARACHI, Pakistan—Militants stormed Karachi's Jinnah International Airport late Sunday, exchanging fire with security forces and leaving at least 23 people dead, officials said.
Separately, gunmen and suicide bombers attacked pilgrims from the minority Shiite sect of Islam in the west of the country, killing at least 23 pilgrims.
No responsibility was immediately claimed or assigned, but both actions bore the earmarks of the Pakistani Taliban, a group closely linked to al Qaeda and its militant allies. The group frequently targets high-profile installations and Shiites, who make up about 20% of Pakistan's population.
At the airport, the assault began at around 10:20 p.m. local time and lasted six hours, with gunfire, explosions and a raging fire. The provincial chief minister, Qaim Ali Shah, said 13 airport employees and security personnel altogether were killed by the militants. In addition, 10 militants were killed, he said.
"They attacked the airport security personnel and then entered," Adnan, a witness, said.
The assault focused on the airport's relatively less heavily guarded Terminal One, which is used for cargo and VIP flights. Two cargo bays appeared destroyed, witnesses said.
Bodies of people killed by the militants and injured were taken to Karachi's Jinnah hospital, according to hospital spokeswoman Seemi Jamali. Raja Umar Khattab, head of the Karachi police's counterterrorism unit, said the situation was under control by 4:30 a.m. local time.
Some of the militants blew themselves up. One suicide bomber, who tried to board a passenger shuttle bus inside the airport, but was tackled by security personnel and detonated his explosives, an intelligence official said.
Mr. Khattab said that it appeared that the assailants had planned to seize part of the airport and take hostages.
"They didn't achieve their strategic objectives. We were able to control what could have been a much bigger situation," said Mr. Khattab.
Maj. Gen. Asim Bajwa, a spokesman for the Pakistani military, said that during the attack, no aircraft was hijacked and no passengers were hurt.
Security officials said that at least two groups of militants entered the airport from different gates, and began the attack with grenades, rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons. They are also wearing suicide vests. They were engaged by army commandos, paramilitary soldiers, police and airport security personnel.
Witnesses saw plumes of smokes rising from the airport and a fire raging close to aircraft parked near the terminal. Karachi is Pakistan's busiest airport, and is served by international carriers such as Emirates, Thai Airways and Turkish Airlines. Because of the country's security situation, Western carriers have stopped serving Pakistan.
"All passengers at the airport are safe. No planes involved in flight operations have been damaged. The fire being shown on TV channels is near planes that have been dumped. The planes on that side [of the airport] are not operational," said Abid Kaimkhani, a spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority of Pakistan.
The government's attempts this year to bring the Taliban into a peace deal ended in a stalemate, with a one-month cease-fire expiring in April. The latest attacks are likely to increase pressure for the army to launch an operation against the Pakistani Taliban's stronghold in North Waziristan, part of the tribal areas along the Afghan border.
A policeman with a gun stands on a vehicle as smoke bellows from Jinnah International airport in Karachi. Reuters
Karachi, Pakistan's biggest metropolis, has been the site of several militant attacks in which dozens of security and civilian personnel have been killed in recent months. Many parts of the periphery of the city are effectively under the control of the Pakistani Taliban, which is known formally as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.
The TTP launched a similar attack in Karachi in 2011, entering the Pakistan Navy's Mehran base, killing six security personnel and destroying two U.S.-made P-3C Orion surveillance and anti-submarine aircraft. It took Pakistani forces 15 hours to repel that attack and clear the base. In 2012, a squad of militants tried to enter the airport in Peshawar, in the north west, but didn't manage to get inside the get inside the airport, leaving four civilians and five militants dead.
In the other attack late Sunday, militants in the troubled Baluchistan province in the west of the country, struck two hotels in the town of Taftan, where Shiite pilgrims stay when going to and from Iran. At least 23 pilgrims were killed in explosions and gunfire, and a further seven wounded, said Baluchistan's home minister Sarfaraz Bugti.
"There were hundreds of pilgrims in the hotels. The terrorists first attacked one hotel, with a suicide bomber detonating himself, and they started shooting as well," said Khan Wasseh, spokesman for the paramilitary Frontier Corps in Baluchistan.
—Qasim Nauman
and Saeed Shah