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Taliban Attacks Pakistan Airport For Second Time in Two Days

The Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for yet another attack in Karachi today, marking the second time in two days that insurgents have targeted the city's major international airport. 

By Danielle Wiener-Bronner
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The Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for yet another attack in Karachi today, marking the second time in two days that insurgents have targeted the city's major international airport.

On Tuesday, a number of gunmen on motorbikes opened fire on a training academy run by the Airports Security Force and located about a half mile from the airport. "We accept responsibility for another successful attack against the government," Taliban spokesperson Shahidullah Shahid told Reuters, adding, "We are successfully achieving all our targets and we will go on carrying on many more such attacks."

The details of today's attack remain unclear. According to an ASF spokesperson two assailants perpetrated the attack, but an army official said there were three or four gunmen. A senior police officer said that "the shooting came from a nearby shanty settlement towards the ASF," adding that "police are launching a search operation now." It's not clear how many casualties were sustained during the event.

Some airlines have suspended flights in and out of the airport, for now.

The death toll from Sunday's attack, meanwhile, has jumped. The BBC has updated its count to 38 dead, Reuters to 34, and the Associated Press to 36. The tally jumped after a number of bodies were recovered from an airport storage facility, which had caught fire during the attack, trapping several people who had sheltered there to avoid the violence.

Earlier this morning, the Pakistani army reported killing 15 militants in an air strike, though it isn't clear if the attack was retaliation for the Karachi assault or if took place before Monday's incident.

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.