Zee Media Bureau/Supriya Jha
Islamabad: A day after Taliban carried out a deadly raid on Karachi's Jinnah International Airport, Pakistani military jets bombed Taliban hideouts near Pak-Afghan border in Pakistan's restive northwestern belt, killing 15, said reports.
The air strikes were carried out by Pakistan's F-16 fighter jets in nine suspected militant hideouts on early Tuesday morning in Khyber tribal agency's Tirah valley and 15 suspected militant were killed, the Dawn reported citing the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).
Since last two weeks, Pakistani jets have been targeting insurgents' hideouts in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).
It can be noted here that Taliban yesterday claimed that the raid on Karachi's Jinnah International Airport was carried out as a retaliation to the airstrikes carried out by Pakistan.
Accepting responsibility for the brazen attack on the airport that killed 30 (including 10 terrorists), h the terror outfit Tehreek-e-Taliban said that the attack was launched in retaliation to the Pakistan Army's air strikes in areas along the Afghan border where the insurgents are based.
"We carried out this attack on the Karachi airport and it is a message to the Pakistan government that we are still alive to react over the killings of innocent people in bomb attacks on their villages," said Shahidullah Shahid, a Taliban spokesman.
Gunmen disguised as security guards raided Karachi's international airport on Sunday night in a siege that ended on Monday, killing 30.
Pakistan has been fighting a decade-old insurgency and thousands have been killed so far.
No major headway has been made in peace talks with Taliban since February.
Karachi was last rattled by a brazen attack three years ago in May 2011 when terrorists had laid a 17-hour siege to Mehran naval base, killing 10 personnel and destroying two aircraft.
First Published: Tuesday, June 10, 2014, 11:25
