How did six Taliban hold off 100 security forces for 16 hours?

[Vehl]

(Reuters) - A Pakistani Navy commando was the first to detect Taliban militants attacking a naval aviation base in the city of Karachi on Sunday night. He was dead within seconds. The small group of militants, as few as six, who attacked the PNS Mehran naval aviation base in Karachi gave its defenders no time.

"You cannot imagine how quick they were," said a Pakistani security official who asked not to be named. "When they entered, one of the Navy commandos saw them and tried to react."

He never got the chance."It was a single shot in the darkness which took his arm off," the official said. "You can imagine how good they were." The commando died on the spot. It was about 10.30 p.m. when he died, and the violence didn't end until 16 hours later on Monday afternoon. It took about 100 commandos, rangers and marines to kill four militants and recapture the base, further humiliating the military. Two militants are believed to have escaped.

more here
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/24/us-pakistan-attack-timeline-idUSTRE74N38820110524

Not only did 6 Taliban held off hundreds of Commandos and security forces for nearly a day, but they also succeeded in destroying 2 Pc3 Orion's and (maybe, reports are contradictory) damaged two more. To add insult to injury, two out of the 6 escaped.

This raises serious questions about the new set of Taliban(?) forces and the support they receive from sections of the military sympathetic to them.(inside assistance is suspected in getting the terrorists into the base). There was another bombing today that killed 32 civilians and police...soon after a similar one yesterday that caused 8 police fatalities. Why is the Taliban very active all of a sudden...I really do not believe the Taliban claim that the Naval base was a retaliationary attack for Osama's death, because attacks like these take a long time to plan..especially the ones carried out with such professionalism inside a very highly guarded base.

[Hannah Bell]

1. super-taliban, genetically modified in a tora-bora laboratory.

[cliffordu]

2. LOL yep.

[Poll_Blind]

3. According to FAS, Pakistan has 90+ nuclear warheads. Wonder if the suicide attachers were...

...looking to make a bigger bang. As has been reported many places, including HERE, the suicide attackers were targeting a specific airplane. An individual airplane. I heard much earlier that Chinese military were on that plane, and being held hostage.

Wonder really what was on that plane.

:shrug:

PB

[Vehl]

4. There were Chinese Engineers working in the base(After initial denial, China accepted there were)

China and Pakistan initially denied this, but later China admitted that it had Chinese Engineers working in the base. Now the question arises about what exactly were Chinese Engineers doing in a base that houses only American PC3 Orion's? (which were recently upgraded in 2009 by America). Its not hard to put two and two together and guess that the Chinese engineers were getting some "hands on time" on American Hardware. Maybe they thought they might as well check these out too...while dissecting samples from the stealth helicopter ;)

China Admits Its Technicians Were Held in Pakistan Base Attack

BEIJING — A day after denying that any of its citizens had been involved, China confirmed Tuesday that Chinese technicians were taken hostage during a militant attack on a Pakistani naval base.

A Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Jiang Yu, said “technical staff of a certain enterprise” had been on the naval base in Karachi and were taken hostage in the 16-hour siege, which began late Sunday and left at least 10 Pakistani security officers dead.

The presence of Chinese technical staff members at the naval base, in Karachi, is another sign of China’s growing involvement in Pakistan. Last week, Pakistan’s defense minister, Ahmad Mukhtar, said that China would take over management of the port of Gwadar, a Pakistani city, and that he would welcome having China build a naval port there.

more here
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/25/world/asia/25china.html

I wonder what that "certain Enterprise" is...probably something along the lines of reverse engineering American tech is my guess



PS:
And yes...the threat of Pakistani nukes falling under Taliban/AQ hands seem more possible now than before. I was of the opinion that the Pakistani bases, especially the strategic ones were guarded very heavily...but this event makes me(and many others) question our earlier conviction...especially when we see internal assistance to the terrorists.

[Poll_Blind]

6. AND 6 American contractors who maintained the PC3 Orions were on base as well!

See THESE articles.

:wtf:

Man, I bet the bar on that base has an interesting mix, eh?

PB

[Vehl]

8. !!!

What the hell!

American contractors AND Chinese inside the same base? This is getting real interesting indeed!
Seems like both the Americans and Chinese escaped without harm.

[Poll_Blind]

11. So the US embassy confirmed US contractors, the Chinese confirmed Chinese military...

...throw in a North Korean kickboxing team/hit squad and a trained spider monkey wearing an amulet with Pakistani nuclear launch codes and you have the best buddy movie Robby Benson and Burt Reynolds never made in the 1970's.

:rofl:



PB

[Poll_Blind]

5. Very odd, I managed to track down pictures of the bodies of two of the alleged...

...suicide commandos and they sure as shit don't look like they'd be able to hold off a whole military base. If anyone's interested, the GRAPHIC link is HERE. Actually, they just look mostly like dust-covered corpses, nothing particularly gruesome as far as dead bodies go. But it's the tennis shoes, sweat pants and t-shirts that threw me for a loop.

PB

[Vehl]

7. interesting indeed

From what I was able to gather, the terrorists used the usual assortments of off the shelf weapons, Rpgs but with some off the shelf(but expensive) gear thrown in...like night vision goggles and Interceptor body Armour(Probably stolen from American supplies...as this is one of the new American BA issued to troops after mid 2000 s)

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ground/interceptor.htm

Also all of them wore suicide vests so none of them were captured.

But it's the tennis shoes, sweat pants and t-shirts that threw me for a loop.

As for the bodies...yes I used to be a bit surprised about the gear worn by such forces in the subcontinent/Afpak region and once had the opportunity to talk to an ex Indian Special forces officer about it. The answer he gave was very interesting and informative. Apparently the standard issue military shoes given to special forces are very hard to acquire for the Taliban...who could on the other hand lay their hands on most of the standard issue combat boots worn by normal rank&file soldiers. However these Standard issue boots were built to last and not as comfortable as tennis shoes...furthermore they would be a dead giveaway if the terrorist(or special force operative) trying to blend in with the population in the region. Tennis shoes...sweat pants and t shirts would allow them to blend in real fast with the population when they make a getaway.Maybe those two who escaped used it to their advantage.




^^ Here is an Indian special forces major(para-sf) masquerading as Taliban in Afghanistan. oft the ability to blend in is what saves these people from death...and naturally they are forced to use AK,s and other Taliban signatory weapons instead of their usual ones.The American special forces also do the same(beards..sometimes Ak's). Maybe the Taliban are trying to do similar stuff now



^^ American forces dressed as Afghans

[Poll_Blind]

9. All good, interesting points. Especially about the shoes vs boots.

:thumbsup:

PB

[Renew Deal]

10. They want to throw Pakistan into chaos.

Then they can build a home base. Maybe they want to draw the US in.

[bemildred]

12. Al-Qaeda had warned of Pakistan strike

ISLAMABAD - Al-Qaeda carried out the brazen attack on PNS Mehran naval air station in Karachi on May 22 after talks failed between the navy and al-Qaeda over the release of naval officials arrested on suspicion of al-Qaeda links, an Asia Times Online investigation reveals.

---

After Bin Laden was killed by American Navy Seals in Abbottabad, 60 kilometers north of Islamabad, militants decided the time was ripe for major action.

Within a week, insiders at PNS Mehran provided maps, pictures of different exit and entry routes taken in daylight and at night, the location of hangers and details of likely reaction from external security forces.

As a result, the militants were able to enter the heavily guarded facility where one group targeted the aircraft, a second group took on the first strike force and a third finally escaped with the others providing covering fire. Those who stayed behind were killed.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/ME27Df06.html

[DavidDvorkin]

13. Especially since they're cowards

Aren't we always supposed to call terrorists cowards?

[coalition_unwilling]

14. Yes, unless they are terrorists disguised as

children.

:sarcasm: