Rawalpindi, Pakistan - The weekend siege at Pakistan Army nerve centre in the garrison town of Rawalpindi ended Sunday, with 20 people, including nine assailants and three hostages, dead. The audacious assault came as a stark reminder to the nuclear- armed Muslim country, a frontline ally of the United States, that militants with links to the al-Qaeda terrorist network were still a potent force despite suffering great losses in recent months.
Elite troops stormed a besieged building at the military's headquarters just before dawn on Sunday, rescuing 39 hostages and capturing a wounded militant described by officials as the raiders' kingpin.
Four hostage-takers were killed in the blitz that also left two commandos and three hostages dead, said Major General Athar Abbas, military's chief spokesman.
"By the grace of God, the operation has been successfully completed," Abbas said.
The decisive assault ended the 22-hour standoff, which began at 1130 am (0530 GMT) on Saturday when the assailants dressed as regulars breached an outermost cordon, firing assault rifles and lobbing hand grenades.
The militants reached the military's bastion, popularly known as the General Headquarters (GHQ), in a white minivan with fake army number plates.
Six soldiers, including a brigadier and a lieutenant colonel, and five attackers were killed in the initial gunfight.
Amid crossfire the remaining gunmen entered an office building on the edge of the GHQ compound and took more than 40 people, both civilians and soldiers, hostage.
Abbas said on Sunday that one militant wearing a suicide vest held up to 22 hostages in a room, but had been eliminated before he could detonate the explosives.
One militant, who led the fighters, resisted the troops for more than two hours and triggered explosives when he was pinned down. The blast wounded five commandos and the rebels' leader identified by the military spokesman as Aqeel alias Doctor Usman.
An intelligence official said on condition of anonymity that Aqeel was long wanted for orchestrating the botched kidnapping of the Sri Lankan cricket team in the eastern city of Lahore on March 3.
Six police officers were killed in the ambush by a dozen gunmen but the Sri Lankan team escaped capture, with seven players and their British coach suffering injuries.
Aqeel was also suspected of involvement in a failed attack on the plane of former president Pervez Musharraf as the aircraft took off from Rawalpindi's Chaklala airbase in July 2007, the official said.
The military released pictures of at least two dead militants wearing combat uniforms and sporting the classic military haircut.
Pakistan's Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani visited the scene where close-quarters battle took place on Sunday. General Kayani was believed to be present inside the GHQ when the attack took place on Saturday but was evacuated safely.
Rawalpindi, located adjacent to the capital city Islamabad, has seen several terrorist strikes in recent months, with most of them directed at military targets.
The surge in militant attacks came as Pakistani authorities boasted about the military gains in Swat valley and announced a full- fledged operation against the heartland of the Islamist extremist Taliban near the Afghan border.
As troops mop up pockets of resistance in Swat, security forces are gearing up for a blistering offensive in South Waziristan tribal district, stronghold of slain Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud.
Baitullah was killed in a US missile strike in early August, but the Taliban quickly reorganized them after appointing his close aide, Hakimullah Mehsud, as their new leader.
Hakimullah vowed to avenge the death of his predecessor, and the warning has been followed by some of the deadliest and daring attacks. On Monday, a suicide bomber dressed as a paramilitary soldier killed five people inside the United Nations' World Food Programme offices in Islamabad, whereas at least 52 people died in a suicide car bombing at a crowded bazaar in the north-western city of Peshawar on Friday.
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is touring London, said the Rawalpindi attack underscored the fact that extremists in Pakistan were "increasingly threatening the authority of the state."
Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said that whatever terrorist activity is taking place across the country, "all roads lead to Waziristan." He says elimination of Taliban in the Waziristan region, a known al-Qaeda sanctuary, has become "inevitable."
Analysts also believe that Baitullah's death and the Swat operation have not dented the Taliban movement much.
The English-language Dawn newspaper, in an editorial on Sunday, said: "Attacking the army's headquarters in Rawalpindi ... sends a signal that the Taliban are alive and kicking and will not go down without a fight."
