Updated June 9, 2014 4:26 a.m. ET
Armed militants stormed Karachi's Jinnah International Airport and exchanged fire with security forces. The WSJ's Syed Shoaib Hasan arrived moments after the first shots were fired and gives us this first-hand account of the attack.
KARACHI, Pakistan—Militants stormed Karachi's Jinnah International Airport late Sunday, exchanging fire with security forces and leaving at least 28 people dead, officials said.
Separately, gunmen and suicide bombers attacked pilgrims from the minority Shiite sect of Islam in the west of Pakistan, killing at least 25 pilgrims.
The Pakistani Taliban, a group closely linked to al Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the airport attack. The group, formally known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, said the attack was revenge for recent Pakistani military airstrikes against them, which followed a breakdown in peace talks with the militants in the last few weeks.
The TTP and its allies frequently target Shiites, who make up about 20% of Pakistan's population. A little-known militant faction called Jaish-ul-Islam claimed responsibility for the attack on the pilgrims.
At the airport, the assault began at around 10:20 p.m. local time Sunday and lasted at least six hours, with gunfire, explosions and a raging fire. All flights at the airport were suspended late Sunday. By midday Monday, local time, security officials said the airport was clear of militants. Flights were expected to resume by late afternoon.
"They attacked the airport security personnel and then entered," Adnan, a witness who only gave his first name, 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 to have been destroyed, witnesses said.
Seemi Jamali, a spokeswoman for Karachi's Jinnah hospital, where the dead and injured were brought, said that 18 airport employees and security personnel were killed by the attackers. In addition, 24 were injured, she said. Security officials said that 10 militants were also killed—seven were shot dead, and three blew themselves up with their suicide vests.
Shards of glass from the broken windshields of cars lay on the road outside the blood-splattered side entrance to Terminal One.
One group of militants entered through Fokker Gate, an entrance that is usually used by engineering or ground-control staff to access nearby hangars, and which had more relaxed security than the regular access points.
On Sunday evening, this weakness was exploited by the attackers, armed with rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.
During the nightlong battle at the airport, the sound of gunfire and grenade blasts was twice interrupted by deafening explosions—suicide bombers detonating their belts.
Occasionally, a wounded official was ferried to the hospital by wailing ambulances. At one point, a member of the bomb-disposal squad walked into the terminal to defuse live explosives on a suicide vest. 20 minutes later, he walked out with the disconnected belt in his hands.
Raja Umar Khattab, head of the Karachi police's counterterrorism unit, said the situation was under control by 4:30 a.m. local time on Monday.
One suicide bomber, who tried to board a passenger shuttle bus inside the airport, 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.
Smoke rises after the assault at Jinnah International Airport. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
"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 wearing suicide vests entered the airport from different gates, and began the attack with grenades, rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons. They were engaged by army commandos, paramilitary soldiers, police and airport security personnel.
Pakistani security troops arrive at Karachi's airport following attacks by unknown gunmen on Sunday. Associated Press
Witnesses saw plumes of smoke 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.
Maj. Gen. Rizwan Akhtar, the head of the paramilitary Rangers force, told reporters Monday that no planes were damaged during the assault. He also said that some of the dead attackers looked "foreign", possibly Uzbek. Militants from central Asian countries, including from Uzbekistan, are active in Pakistan.
Both Thai Airways and Emirates, which had planes on the tarmac in Karachi filled with passengers when the attack began, said that travelers were escorted from the aircraft to safety by security personnel.
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 TTP's stronghold in North Waziristan, part of the tribal areas along the Afghan border. The government hasn't formally abandoned the talks.
Pakistani police officers display ammunition confiscated from attackers at the Jinnah International Airport. Associated Press
"This attack and other recent attacks mean it is going to be very difficult to revive the talks now," said Rahamillah Yusufzai, a veteran journalist who was formerly a member of the government's team for negotiations with the militants.
The peace talks initiative did manage to break off one large faction of the TTP. But the rest of the group continues to attack, including assaults on Pakistani border posts from TTP members based in eastern Afghanistan.
"They want to go for big things, to show that the division hasn't affected them, to show that they are stronger than previously," said Syed Hussain Shaheed Soherwordi, an international terrorism specialist at the University of Peshawar.
Shahidullah Shahid, a spokesman for the TTP, accused the government of "playing games".
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 TTP.
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 failed to 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 25 pilgrims were killed in explosions and gunfire, and a further seven wounded, officials said.
"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 contributed to this article.
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