10 die as gunmen hit Pakistan base
Gunmen wearing military uniforms have attacked Pakistan's army headquarters, sparking a ferocious gun battle that killed four of the assailants and at least six soldiers.
Two of the attackers managed to infiltrate the heavily fortified compound in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, and troops were trying to flush them out hours after the initial assault, the military said.
The audacious assault was the third major militant attack in Pakistan in a week and came as the government said it was planning an imminent offensive against Islamist militants in their strongholds in the rugged mountains along the border with Afghanistan.
It showed that the militants retain the ability to strike at the very heart of Pakistan's security apparatus despite recent military operations against their forces and the killing of Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud in a CIA drone attack in August.
Pakistani media said the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, and interior minister Rehman Malik said the assaults strengthened the government's resolve to launch the offensive.
"We have been left no other option except to go ahead to face them," he told Dawn television.
The attack began when the gunmen, dressed in camouflage military uniforms, drove in a white van up to the army compound and tried to force their way inside, army spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas said.
The assailants shot at the guards at one checkpoint, killing some of them, and then jumped out of the van and ran toward a second checkpoint, he said. Abbas said the guards were probably confused by the attackers' uniforms.
The heavily armed attackers then took up positions throughout the area, hurling at least one grenade and firing sporadically at security forces, said a senior military official inside the compound.
