Militants battle with police in Pakistan

PESHAWAR - Agence France-Presse

Six people were killed yesterday as police and troops battled militants armed with automatic weapons, grenades and mortars in northwest Pakistan’s Peshawar, a day after a deadly Taliban raid on the city’s airport.

Fierce firing broke out after police acting on an intelligence report stormed a building near the airport, where a suicide and rocket attack on Dec. 15 killed five civilians and five attackers and wounded 50 other people.

Police backed by troops launched a raid early yesterday on a building under construction near the airport following reports that five militants who fled after the airport attack had taken refuge there.

Second attack on air base

In the subsequent shootout three militants and a policemen were killed, police said, while two other officers were wounded. The assault late Dec. 15 is claimed by the Pakistani Taliban. It was the second militant attack in four months on a military air base in Pakistan.
In August, 11 people were killed when heavily-armed insurgents wearing suicide vests stormed a facility in the northwestern town of Kamra.