Pakistan's Karachi Airport Under Attack Again | WPN World People News

Gunmen have launched a fresh attack near Pakistan's Karachi international airport, where a Sunday assault has left at least 35 people dead.

The gunmen opened fire on Tuesday at the training academy of the Airport Security Force.

According to a VOA correspondent in Pakistan, officials say security forces have "successfully repulsed" the attackers.

Military sources say up to four suspected militants attacked the facility. They say the attackers managed to escape into a nearby slum during an exchange of gunfire with security forces.

Officials say there are an undetermined number of casualties.

The incident has prompted officials to suspend flights to and from the airport.

Officials say 10 gunmen were among those killed on Sunday, as well as seven workers, whose bodies were found on Tuesday in an airport cold storage facility. Investigators say the bodies of the cargo company workers were burned beyond recognition. The workers had sought refuge in the facility, but it was engulfed in flames as gunmen attacked the airport.

In another development, the Pakistani military carried out a series of air strikes Tuesday on suspected militant targets in the northwestern Khyber region. The military says at least 25 "terrorists" have been killed.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has strongly condemned the airport attack and another violent incident that took place just hours before the attack.

Suspected Sunni Muslim militants, on Sunday, killed at least 26 Shi'ite pilgrims in a suicide attack on buses carrying the worshippers in the town of Taftan, near the Iranian border. Authorities say one bomber was killed, while three others blew themselves up.

Ban said Monday that he was "deeply concerned" about the upsurge in violence across Pakistan.

He urged the Islamabad government to further boost efforts to protect the rights of all people to practice their religion safely.

Earlier Monday, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif also condemned the attacks.

Critics said the airport siege dealt a critical blow to Sharif's efforts to negotiate a peace settlement with the Taliban, which ended a six-week cease-fire in April.

A Taliban spokesman linked the airport attack to recent military strikes against militant strongholds along the Afghan border and last year's killing of the group's leader, Hakimullah Mehsud, in a suspected U.S. drone strike.

Source: Voice of America