Pakistani forces retake airbase from Taliban gunmen

TROOPS yesterday recaptured a Pakistani naval air force base after a 16-hour battle with Taliban gunmen who had attacked the base to avenge the killing of Osama bin Laden.

Interior minister Rehman Malik said just six militants were believed to have been involved in the attack on the PNS Mehran base in Karachi late on Sunday, destroying or damaging two aircraft and laying siege to a main building in one of the most heavily guarded bases in Pakistan.

The assault casts fresh doubt on the Pakistani military’s ability to protect its bases, following a raid on army headquarters in Rawalpindi in 2009 and is a further embarrassment following the surprise raid by United States special forces on the al-Qaida leader’s hideout in Abbottabad, north of Islamabad, on May 2.