By Aamir Latif
QUETTA, Pakistan
Pakistani security forces have launched a search operation near two military bases in southwestern Quetta city on Friday, after repulsing simultaneous overnight attacks on the bases.
Mehmood Notezai, a city police chief, told the Anadolu Agency that 10 militants were killed in night-long clashes with security forces.
"All the terrorists were killed before they could enter the air base," Notezai said.
Provincial police chief Mohammad Amlish told reporters that three militants detonated their suicides vests after being cornered by security forces and one terrorist has been arrested. He said five militants died at the Smingali base near Quetta airport, where they began their attack at 11pm local time, and the Khalid airbase.
He said the situation is under control and neither base was seriously damaged.
Officials suggested the involvement of foreign fighters with Notezai claiming the dead militants had an Afghan appearance while another security official told AA, on condition of anonymity, that they looked like Uzbek fighters.
The incidents come after a brazen storming of an international airport in the country's biggest city, Karachi, in June, which killed 40 people, including 10 militants. The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan militant network claimed responsibility for the attack, which involved foreign militants.
There has not yet been any claim of responsibility for the fresh attacks in an area previously hit by both sectarian violence and a separatist militancy.
www.aa.com.tr/en
