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From: Saulat Said <
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Date: Wed, 25 May 2011 07:55:43 +0100 (BST)
Subject: 'New kind of militant' behind Pakistan Karachi attack
To:
BBC website.
24 May 2011 Last updated at 23:58 GMT
'New kind of militant' behind Pakistan Karachi attackBy Syed Shoaib
Hasan BBC News, Karachi
Officials say the attack was too professional to be the handiwork of
the Taliban
The deadly 15-hour siege on Pakistan's Mehran naval airbase in Karachi on
Monday was carried out by attackers with military-level training,
raising suspicions they had inside help.
Questions are being asked about the security of Pakistan's
vital military installations after a well-organised group of gunmen
held off Pakistan's equivalent of the US Navy Seals - the Special
Services
Group - Navy (SSG-N) - for 15 hours.
This SSG-N is said to be the most formidable fighting force
in Pakistan, but - for a few hours at least - they appeared to be at
the mercy of a brazen group of fighters.
"They weren't any ordinary militants - certainly not the Taliban,"
said one security official, who wished to remain unnamed.
"The aim of all Taliban attacks is maximum death and destruction -
these men were very focused on what they were after."Speed and
organisation
From the beginning it was clear the attackers had an intricate
knowledge of the base and its vulnerable areas. They were tactically
assured and the operation had clearly been long in the planning.
"They came over the wall cutting the wire on the eastern side of the
base," one official told the BBC, adding that it was one of the
weak points. The militants knew and exploited this - just one piece of
inside knowledge they had.
"That side is just next to the runway - and the guard tower is at a
distance because planes land regularly."
The first time the militants were seen was when they appeared on the
runway, weapons at the ready. "The [navy] men couldn't believe
their eyes," says an official.
A number of officials listed to me their observations, which
reinforced the conviction that they were being confronted with a
totally different kind of militant, possibly hitherto unseen:
* Military formation: One injured sailor told an official that the
attackers "moved and dressed like us". The militants
moved in tactical military formation and spoke in military parlance.
They spoke between themselves in Urdu, as well as a foreign language.
* Clothing and equipment: The militants wore
combat fatigues, according to officials - and had night vision goggles,
carrying rocket propelled grenades [RPGs]. "It takes months of training
for ease with the goggles, and years to be expert," one official told
me.
* Tactics and a plan: One witness said that even though the militants
had clear sight of them, "they ignored us...
Instead, they just aimed RPGs at the two Orions [planes] parked on the
tarmac." They were clearly under instructions to destroy military
hardware. They also changed tactics easily and broke away in groups,
which clearly had different aims.
* Crack shots: "They were excellent shots - as
good as any we have," said one security official involved in the
operation. They used their night vision goggles to maximum effect,
witnesses say - and that was an advantage they had until the SSG-N team
arrived at the scene. When the gun battle began, one security official
said, it was clear that these men could "hold their own" in a
firefight. The fact that they had M16 carbines and sniper rifles also
set them
apart.
Officials says all of this is in strong contrast to the
Taliban, who adopt an equally brutal but more chaotic mode of attack.
"Their best weapon is the suicide bomber - they are notoriously poor
shots," one official told me.
"They were the exception to every rule of Pakistan militant tactics."
"They were also not about killing people," one official said. "It was
clear they were interested in the destruction of equipment, a
much more 'military' aim."
Shock and disbelief
It was only the sheer numbers of the naval personnel that
prevented further damage to the aircraft in the base, one naval
spokesman said..
Even so, the ferocity, speed and organisation of the
onslaught still came as a shock. The planes were in flames and a gun
battle was in full force within minutes.
The incident has drawn comparisons with the 2008 Mumbai (Bombay) attacks
But one of the attackers in particular caught the attention of those
who were watching and bearing the brunt of the attack.
"A small young man with a light beard who later dropped his
M16 for two Uzi submachine guns. He was particularly deadly - he killed
one soldier with a single shot at over 600 yards."
Another clue as to the level of their training and ability
was their ability to change tactics. One witness recounted how in the
midst of the firefight the attackers appeared to change tactics and back off.
They appeared to be going for the barracks housing the
Chinese engineers. Another firefight broke out until another detachment
of naval marines got to the Chinese barracks. The militants, when they
realised what was happening, opened fire on the armoured vehicles the
Chinese engineers were being taken away in. Inside help
Everything about the attack pointed to a detailed knowledge of the
barracks. After the Chinese engineers were taken away, they broke
up into groups and one group took refuge in a nearby barracks.
"They used the building to maximum effect - they knew it and the
surrounding area inside out," one official said.
"We later discovered plans to the whole compound on them."
The SSG-N finally got into the barracks and killed the
remaining militants. The attackers had clearly come prepared for a long
siege, bringing bags of dried fruit as rations.
Officials dismiss the explanation that the attack was in
retaliation for Osama Bin Laden's death. "This took months of planning
- the only parallel I can think of is Mumbai (Bombay)," one said.
Gunmen killed 165 people in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, and
India has repeatedly accused Pakistan and its ISI intelligence agency
of involvement in them.
"This maybe the first attack of its kind [in Pakistan]," the security
official said. "But it's definitely not the last."
