Pakistan army HQ seige ends with 19 dead

At least 19 people died as Pakistani commandos freed dozens of hostages seized by militants at the army's own headquarters today.

It ended a 22-hour drama that embarrassed the nation's military as it plans a new offensive against al-Qaida and the Taliban.

The stand-off included three captives and eight of the militants, who wore army fatigues in the audacious assault. The rescue operation began before dawn, ultimately freeing 42 hostages, the military said.

One attacker, described as the militants' ringleader, was captured.

The attack on the nerve centre of the army, Pakistan's most powerful institution, showed the continued strength of insurgents allied with al-Qaida and the Taliban despite military operations and US missile strikes that have battered their ranks. It was the third major attack in Pakistan in a week.

The government said the siege only steeled its resolve to go through with an offensive in South Waziristan, a tribal region along the Afghan border and a major militant stronghold.

The US and Pakistan's other Western allies want Islamabad to take more action against insurgents also blamed for soaring attacks on US and Nato troops in Afghanistan.

A leading analyst said the militants' ability to invade the heavily guarded army headquarters, even securing uniforms, was evidence they may have infiltrated the security forces.

At the very least, he said, it shows the army is constantly forced to play defence.

"The question is, when do they get ahead of the curve where they can actually be in preventative mode," said Kamran Bokhari, an analyst with Stratfor, a US-based global intelligence service.

Five heavily armed militants took the hostages after they and about four other assailants attacked the headquarters' main gate yesterday, killing six soldiers, including a brigadier and a lieutenant colonel. The gunmen arrived in a white van that reportedly had army licence plates.

No group claimed responsibility, but authorities said they were sure the Pakistani Taliban or an allied Islamist militant group were behind the strike.

The garrison city of Rawalpindi, just a few miles from Islamabad, is filled with security checkpoints and police roadblocks.

Explosions and gunshots rang out just before dawn as commandos moved into a building in the complex, while a helicopter hovered in the sky. Three ambulances were seen driving out of the heavily fortified base close to the capital, Islamabad.

Two hours after the raid began, two new explosions were heard. The army said it was "mopping up" the remaining insurgents.

The hostages included soldiers and civilians. Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said 20 hostages were kept in a room guarded by a militant wearing a suicide vest who was shot and killed before he managed to detonate his explosives.

Overall, at least 19 people died - six soldiers, two commandos, eight militant attackers and three captives - and several were wounded. The final hostage-taker was caught as he wounded himself by setting off explosives he was carrying, Mr Abbas said.

Mr Abbas described the captured man as "the leader of all this group".

The siege followed a car bombing that killed 49 on Friday in the north-western city of Peshawar and the bombing of a UN aid agency last Monday that killed five in Islamabad.

The string of attacks destroyed any remaining hope that the militants had been left a spent force by the death of Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud in a US missile strike in August.

A week ago, Baitullah Mehsud's successor, Hakimullah Mehsud, told journalists summoned to a briefing in South Waziristan that the Taliban would launch more attacks on military, government and other targets in the country.

The army - which until 2001 had patronised various militant groups for use as proxies in Afghanistan and India - had previously been unwilling to go into Waziristan.

Three earlier offensives there have ended in failure, and no one thinks the fight against an estimated 10,000 well-armed fighters there will be any easier this time.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said a Waziristan offensive was now "inevitable".

"We are going to come heavy on you," he warned the militants.