Militants storm Pakistan naval air base, 7 dead

It was the worst assault on a military base since the army headquarters was besieged in October 2009, piling further embarrassment on the armed forces three weeks after US troops killed Osama bin Laden under their noses.

Up to 20 militants crept into the base from three sides under the cover of night late Sunday, triggering gunbattles and a series of explosions. Twelve hours later, officials said they were still battling to restore order.

By mid-morning, fire crews had doused towering flames over the PNS Mehran, a base of the Pakistani navy's air arm in the teeming port city of Karachi.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the "terrorists" sneaked into the base from three points adjacent to residential areas in the city of 16 million people, whose port is a vital hub for NATO supplies bound for Afghanistan.

A spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, who have stepped up attacks to avenge the 2 May death of bin Laden, claimed to have dispatched 15 to 20 suicide bombers equipped to fight for a week.

The Al-Qaeda leader was killed by US commandos in a garrison town north of Islamabad, in a raid that humiliated Pakistan's security establishment. The militants' attack deep inside Karachi underlined the military's vulnerability.

In October 2009, Taliban militants besieged the army headquarters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi for two days, killing 22 people and raising serious questions over why it took the military so long to put down the assault.

Karachi is Pakistan's financial capital and its port is used by NATO to ship supplies to the estimated 130,000 US-led foreign troops fighting the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan.

The assault was the fourth on the navy in Karachi in a month. On 28 April,  four naval personnel and a passing motorcyclist were killed in a bombing, two days after four other people were killed in two navy bus bombings.

Last week, a Saudi diplomat was shot dead as he drove to his consulate in Karachi just days after attackers threw grenades at the mission.

Despite anger in Pakistan over bin Laden's killing, US President Barack Obama told the BBC he was ready to order a similar mission if another high-value target was discovered in Pakistan, or anywhere else.