PESHAWAR: As many as five militants were killed while a security personnel was martyred Sunday when police and troops battled militants armed with automatic weapons, grenades and mortars in Pakawa area of Peshawar, a day after a deadly Taliban raid on the city s airport.
Fierce firing broke out after police acting on an intelligence report tried to storm a building near the airport, where a suicide and rocket attack on Saturday evening killed five civilians and the five attackers and wounded 40 other people.
The assault late Saturday, claimed by the Pakistani Taliban, sparked prolonged gunfire and forced authorities to close the airport, a commercial hub and Pakistan Air Force (PAF) base in Peshawar on the edge of the tribal belt.
It was the second militant attack in four months on a military air base in nuclear-armed Pakistan. In August 11 people were killed when heavily-armed insurgents wearing suicide vests stormed a facility in the northwestern town of Kamra.
Five militants and a police officer were killed in Sunday s fighting, senior police official told AFP. Troops also took part in the clashes.
Five insurgents took refuge in the half-built building overnight after the airport attack.
Provincial information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain confirmed the casualties and said the raid was launched after intelligence reports that militants were hiding in the construction site.
Live television footage showed troops and police entering a street amid gunfire.
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