Pakistan's military says it has regained control of Karachi International Airport after fighting running battles with Taliban gunmen and suicide bombers.
The militants, disguised as security forces, stormed Pakistan's busiest airport and at least 28 people were killed in a night-long battle at one of the country's most high-profile targets.
Smoke rises after militants launched an early morning assault at Jinnah International Airport. Photo: AFP
The assault on Jinnah International Airport began just before midnight on Sunday when 10 gunmen wearing military uniforms shot their way into the airport's old terminal used mainly for charter and executive flights.
Gun battles raged throughout the night until security forces regained control of the airport at dawn. Passengers were evacuated and all flights diverted, Reuters reports.
Fresh violence was reported on Monday morning, but airport officials say the siege is now over and flights are set to resume in the afternoon. Officials said no aircraft had been damaged.
The Pakistani Taliban, an alliance of insurgent groups fighting to topple the government and set up a sharia state, claimed responsibility, saying it was in response to army attacks on their strongholds along the Afghan border.
"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," spokesman Shahidullah Shahid said on Monday.
Pakistan's paramilitary force said that the attackers were ethnic Uzbeks. "Three militants blew themselves up and seven were killed by security forces," Rizwan Akhtar, the regional head of the paramilitary Rangers, said on television.
Karachi is Pakistan's biggest city and a key hub of business activity, home to a vibrant stock exchange and companies. But it is also a violent and chaotic place where Taliban militants and criminal gangs operate freely underground.
At the airport, TV pictures showed fire raging as ambulances ferried casualties away. At least three loud explosions were heard as militants wearing suicide vests blew themselves up.
"Ten militants aged between 20 and 25 have been killed by security forces," a spokesman for the paramilitary Rangers force said. "A large cache of arms and ammunition has been recovered from the militants."
Peace talks between the government and the Pakistani Taliban had failed in recent months, already dampening hopes of reaching a negotiated settlement with the insurgents, who continue attacks against government and security targets.
Pakistani security personnel gather outside the Jinnah International Airport after the militants' assault in Karachi. Photo: AFP
Pilgrims targeted at border
In a separate attack in southwest Baluchistan province, at least 23 people including several Shiite pilgrims were killed in a gun and suicide assault on the restive Pakistan-Iran border.
The attack on Sunday came when a bus carrying Pakistani pilgrims returning from a visit to holy Muslim sites in Iran stopped at a restaurant in the Pakistani town of Taftan, about 700km southwest of the provincial capital Quetta, AFP reports.
Provincial home secretary Akbar Durrani said four suicide bombers attacked two restaurants full of pilgrims.
One suicide bomber was shot dead trying to enter one of the restaurants, while the other three managed to enter a second restaurant and blow themselves up.
As well as the Taliban threat, Pakistan is facing a rising tide of sectarian bloodshed mainly targeting minority Shiite Muslims.
In January this year, at least 29 Shia pilgrims died in a bus bomb explosion in Balochistan.
