Red Mosque Dawn: “Indiscriminate Killing…Dead Bodies Everywhere” ***Update: Mosque Taken, But Battle Continues***
Update: Pakistani Troops Seize Red Mosque
Dead bodies are “everywhere” at a radical Pakistani mosque after commandos stormed the holy place where about 150 people were being held hostage.
Gunfighting erupted at Islamabad’s Red Mosque compound when last-ditch efforts to negotiate a surrender failed.
A witness said those inside the facility were under “massive bombing and gunfire. This is indiscriminate killing”.
“There is no contact with each other because no one can leave the rooms and basements. There are dead bodies everywhere,” the witness added.
At least 40 militants and three soldiers have been killed in the ongoing assault, the army said.
The commandos initially entered the compound from three directions and quickly cleared the ground floor of the mosque, army spokesman General Waheed Arshad said.
The militants were armed with machine guns, rocket launchers and grenades and have been putting up “tough resistance” in the basement of the mosque, he continued.
He told reporters: “There’s woman and children who are in the complex and we are taking a step-by-step approach to ensure there’s no collateral damage unnecessarily.”
Sky News producer Chiade O’Shea, in Islamabad, said the fighting was still fierce and militants have booby-trapped, as they retreated through the compound.
She added troops were using dynamite to blast their way into some of the rooms where the hostage-takers have fortified doors.
Some 20 youngsters who rushed toward the advancing troops were brought to safety.
The commandos moved in a week after the outbreak of fighting between security forces and supporters of hard-line clerics at the mosque.
The religious leaders had tried to impose Taliban-style rule in the capital through a six-month campaign of kidnappings and threats.
At least 87 people have been killed since July 3.
Be respectful of others and their opinions. Inflammatory remarks and inane leftist drivel will be deleted. It ain’t about free speech, remember you’re in a private domain. My website, my prerogative.
If you can't handle using your real email address, don't bother posting a comment.
That may deserve a movie poster Photoshop rendition. To answer all the new Jihadi movie poster made here:
http://tinyurl.com/2mhxe3
I have created a few responses of my own. Amy more?
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x241/Egfrow/armageddon.jpg
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x241/Egfrow/fistfullofdinars.jpg
July 10th, 2007 at 3:05 amDing, dong the mullah is dead.
– Cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi, the leader at the center of the week-long Red Mosque siege in Islamabad, has been killed, Pakistani intelligence sources tell CNN.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/07/10/pakistan.mosque/index.html
July 10th, 2007 at 6:34 am