The operation was launched early in the morning
Posted on 07/09/2007 5:26:04 PM PDT by mdittmar
By Julian Kossoff and agencies
The Telegraph(UK)
Last Updated: 2:17am BST 10/07/2007
Pakistani security forces launched an all-out assault to clear militants from a mosque compound in the capital, Islamabad, after talks to end a week-long standoff broke down, the military said.
"We launched an operation at 4 a.m. (2300 GMT) to clear the madrasa of militants," said military spokesman Major-General Waheed Arshad, referring to a religious school in the mosque compound.
A short while later he said troops had entered the compound of the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, and were coming under fire from the militants inside.
As gunfire and explosions were heard 20 children escaped from the compound.
The clash between the government and militant students has lasted for seven days in the heart of Islamabad. The violence at the Red Mosque has claimed at least 21 lives.
Earlier, religious scholars and Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, the former premier, gathered outside to plead with the Islamist militants to send out the dead and wounded along with women and children, a day after authorities gave "a final warning" to surrender.
President Pervez Musharraf's government said that children were either coerced or persuaded to stay behind to act as human shields for the fighters, some belonging to militant groups linked to al-Qa'eda.
Abdul Rashid Ghazi, the Lal Masjid cleric, and his fighters have scorned warnings to surrender or die. Ghazi said he and his followers hoped their deaths would spark an Islamic revolution.
Government and military officials say there are 50 to 60 militants leading the fighting, but most of the others - thought to number around 150 - are women and children.
The Lal Masjid has been a centre of militancy for years, known for its support for Afghanistan's Taliban and opposition to Musharraf's backing for the United States.
Photos?
Here is the starter post:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1862852/posts
Here is a live stream of the fighting (Pashto):
http://www.jumptv.com/en/channel/aajtv/
Molana Gazi on Telephone on TV.... saying there are only 14 kalashankoves.. and 25 people with him.... Its Live.. and we can hear live gun fire behind.. He is standing next to window... his mother body is lying infront of him. There is Ansoo gass he is saying... He is saying.. i want to tell Pskiatanis.. i will not bow infront of injustice and force, and i wanted every thing to be transparents... but giovernment was not listenning to thm. so before he diies he want to set the record stratight
Live: Guyies they going to enter the basement soon, were the rest of them are holed up, pray for our jawans.
Do you speak Pashto?
I’m watching the feed...the announcer occassionally breaks into English words, and not just “technical” ones. They had a mil official earler who did it a lot more.
And why is,Molana Gazi on Telephone or TV?
More blogs: “As I said before the militants according to ISPR are hiding in the basement, so it will take awhile this is not a normal special forces OP, and their are also civilians in the basement.”
2 Dead, 8 Injured from Elite Force. Weapons used: AK-47s, RPGs, booby traps, molotov cocktails etc...vast area and many floors including 3 basement levels so will take time. You'll definately get casualties due to close quarter combat and increased likelihood of casualties....Aaj asking if there has been any advancement...ISPR says that currently heavy fighting around the wuzu areas.
ISPR spokesman Gen Waheed Arshad is on Aaj right now....saying there are contingency plans if the militants continue fighting. they're trying to push him to say that the operation is a failure cause even after 3 hrs the PA hasn't won...he's saying that the PA never gave a time limit on the operation and they are facing heavy resistence and so it takes time.
Only after we bulldoze the abortion clinics.
Thanks for the updates.
2 Anti Terrorist Commandos Dead. 9 in critical condition brought into hospital.
Just in: Now reporting that a hospital nearby has been taken control of by the Army and they have told all media to get out and if they don't they will be shot. Reporter is saying that army is trying to hide casualties. The reporter seems very angry at the army.
Now: Ghazi is back on the telephone. Also, many casualties are being transferred to Rawalpindi. 20 Militants Killed - 15 Injured
3 SSG commandoes Killed (Shaheed) 15 Injured
20 Children rescued
40% of Lal Masjid under SSG control
Troops storm Pakistan mosque compound
ZARAR KHAN, Associated Press Writer
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070710/ap_on_re_as/pakistan_radical_mosque
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Troops stormed the compound of Islamabad’s Red Mosque on Tuesday, prompting a fierce firefight with militants accused of holding scores of hostages, officials said. At least two soldiers were killed, but there was no official word on casualties among the mosque’s defenders.
Amid the sounds of rolling explosions, commandos attacked from three directions and quickly cleared the ground floor of the mosque, army spokesman Gen. Waheed Arshad said. Some 20 children who rushed toward the advancing troops were brought to safety, he said.
Militants armed with guns, grenades and gasoline bombs were in the basement of the mosque as well as in an adjoining religious school and were putting up “tough resistance,” Arshad told a news conference.
“Those who surrender will be arrested, but the others will be treated as combatants and killed,” he said.
The assault began minutes after a delegation led by a former prime minister left the area declaring that efforts to negotiate a peaceful end to a week-old seige had failed.
Clashes this month between security forces and supporters of the mosque’s hardline clerics prompted the siege. The religious extremists had been trying to impose Taliban-style morality in the capital through a six-month campaign of kidnappings and threats. Prior to Tuesday’s assault, at least 24 people had been killed in and around the mosque.
The assault was signaled by blasts and gunfire. Reporters saw more than 40 ambulances approaching the area along with trucks carrying extra soldiers.
Mohammed Ramzan, an official at Islamabad’s main Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences hospital, said it had received eight wounded soldiers early Tuesday and that two had died of their injuries.
There was no official word on any casualties among people inside the mosque compound, but rebel leader Abdul Rashid Ghazi told the private Geo TV network that his mother had been wounded by gunfire.
“The government is using full force. This is naked aggression,” he said. “My martyrdom is certain now.”
He said that about 30 militants were resisting security forces but were only armed with 14 AK-47 assault rifles.
Tuesday attack followed a botched commando raid on the high-walled mosque compound over the weekend.
On Monday, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf assigned ex-premier Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain to try and negotiate a peaceful end to the standoff.
But Hussain and a delegation of Islamic clerics returned crestfallen from the mosque after about nine hours of talks with rebel leader Abdul Rashid Ghazi via loudspeakers and cell phones.
“We offered him a lot, but he wasn’t ready to come on our terms,” Hussain told reporters waiting at the edge of the army cordon shortly before dawn.
Several loud explosions boomed over the city just as the vexed looking delegates were getting into their cars and sporadic shooting was also heard.
Later, Deputy Information Minister Tariq Azim said lives would be lost in the assault.
“We have to do it with a heavy heart. After spending a full day in negotiations to save innocent lives, the operation has started,” Azim said. “I hope the waiting ambulances will remain empty, but we fear that lives will be lost.”
Musharraf sent in the army to surround the compound after the gunbattles broke out July 3.
The siege has given the neighborhood the look of a war zone, with troops manning machine guns behind sandbagged posts and from the top of armored vehicles. Helicopters circle overhead.
On Sunday, the army released an aerial photograph showing how it had blasted several holes in the walls of the compound to help students escape, seeking to disprove claims from Ghazi, who has given a string of phone interviews to reporters, that the mosque had been badly damaged.
Only two students escaped after the raid, which left a top army commando dead.
Maqir Abbasi went to the barricades around the mosque seeking news of his 22-year-old sister, Yasmin.
“Whenever I hear the sounds of bullets, I feel that my sister has been harmed. We appeal to the government, we appeal to Ghazi, we appeal to everyone. I want my sister back,” he said.
Officials claim that members of banned militant groups linked to al-Qaida are inside the mosque. Some radical clerics in Pakistan’s wild western border region have called for revenge against security forces because of the siege.
On Monday, some 20,000 tribesmen, including hundreds of masked militants wielding assault rifles, protested in the frontier region of Bajur, led by Maulana Faqir Mohammed, a wanted cleric suspected of ties to al-Qaida’s No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahri.
___
Associated Press writers Zarar Khan and Sadaqat Jan in Islamabad and Habibullah Khan in Khar contributed to this report.
Get ready for reports of a ‘massacre.’
Indeed, this is what the Islamists were hoping for. They’ve probably butchered the women and children already, so that they can blame Musharaff.
Praise the lord and pass the ammunition.
Ghazi is calling tv stations, his mother is not dead, she is reciting the Kalma (martyrs paryer) Now reporting that operation could go 5-6 hours more. There seems to have been another explosion/fire (RPG?Bomb?). Even Blacker smoke seen coming from the right side of the camera shot.
Op now going on for 3.5 hours.
Smoke rises from the Lal masjid (Red Mosque) as fighting between militants and government forces erupted in Islamabad, Pakistan on Tuesday, July 10, 2007. Troops stormed the compound of Islamabad's Red Mosque on Tuesday, prompting a fierce battle with militants accused of holding about 150 hostages inside, officials said. At least two soldiers died in the assault. (AP Photo/K.M.Chaudary)
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