Attackers fire rockets at Pakistan airport, no injuries or damage ( 2003-09-07 15:07) (Agencies)
Attackers fired three rockets at an airport housing Pakistan military troops
hunting for al-Qaida and Taliban fugitives, but there were no injuries or
damage, a military official said Sunday.
The attack occurred late Friday in Bannu, a conservative tribal city about
250 kilometers (155 miles) southwest of the capital, Islamabad, said Maj. Gen.
Shaukat Sultan, a military spokesman.
There was no claim of responsibility and Sultan said officials were
investigating who was responsible. ``We are ascertaining details of the
attack,'' he said. Two rockets exploded in deserted areas inside the airport
grounds. The third rocket failed to explode, he said.
Bannu is located at the edge of a tribal region where Pakistani and US
officials are searching for al-Qaida and Taliban fugitives, who are believed to
use Pakistani soil to launch attacks into neighboring Afghanistan.
Local residents reported earlier this week that the military had stepped up
activity in the area, sending dozens of helicopters to Bannu airport. Some
helicopters were spotted carrying ``foreign'' troops, a reference to American
forces. The helicopters were flying over the tribal area near Bannu.
But on Sunday, the helicopters were gone and the tiny airport all but
abandoned. Abbas Khan, 60, a worker at the airport, told The Associated Press
that the Pakistani military had pulled out Saturday afternoon after an operation
that lasted several days.
``At 3 p.m. all the helicopters and troops left. They were here for three
days. There were a lot of flights but we don't know what they were doing,'' said
Khan, who has worked at the airport for 20 years.
Ismail Khan, the owner of a tea house near the airport, said there were many
Pakistani soldiers in the area, and that the townspeople speculated they were
looking for al-Qaida.
``It was the talk of the town that they were here searching for al-Qaida
people,'' said Khan. ``We don't have any al-Qaida people here in our area.''
Pakistan's military has said it deployed the troops in Bannu for a ``routine
exercise.''
A resident of Bannu, Inayat Khan, said on Saturday he heard explosions around
the airport.
The tribal region borders Afghanistan. Sympathies among the tribesman run
high for the Taliban because many share the ousted militia's harsh
interpretation of Islam and its Pashtun ethnicity.
A US-led coalition ousted the Taliban in late 2001 for harboring al-Qaida,
which is blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.
Local tribesman resent the presence of foreign and Pakistani troops in their
areas and are also suspected of sheltering fugitives from the two
groups.
