At least 2 dead in rocket attack on Peshawar airport
A Pakistani paramedic treats an injured man after a rocket attack on an airport in Peshawar on December 15, 2012. Militants fired rockets into the airport of Pakistan’s northwestern city Peshawar late on Saturday, killing four people, wounding dozens more and forcing the airport to close, officials said.
A rocket attack in northwest Pakistan has killed at least two people and injured at least 20 more, including women and children, BBC News reported.
Some sources, including Reuters, cited the death toll at four people; some said five had died.
Militants fired rockets at Peshawar airport Saturday, one of their most brazen raids since attacking an air base in eastern Pakistan in August, Reuters reported.
It is unclear where the rockets were launched from, though there is speculation that they came from the tribal areas near Peshawar, NDTV reported.
A wall that surrounds the airport was damaged, and a third rocket landed near a government building outside the premises, said Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the information minister in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, according to the Associated Press.
Security forces and militants engaged in a gun battle for about 30 minutes after the rocket attack, and all five militants were killed, according to NDTV.
Peshawar has been the target of frequent attacks in the past two years, but this was the first militant strike against the airport, according to the AP.
More from GlobalPost: Pakistan’s human rights: the growing gulf between reality and rhetoric