Five Taliban militants die in airport attack in Pakistan

16 December ,INB NEWS KASHMIR :- Pakistani security forces cornered the last members of a group of Taliban militants who staged a deadly raid on an airport in the country’s troubled northwest, and all five died in the ensuing gunfight, officials said on Sunday.Three were shot by the security forces and two others blew themselves up in the nearby village where they had holed up, the officials said. Another five of the militants who attacked the military side of the international airport in Peshawar city on Saturday night with rockets and car bombs were killed during the assault. Four civilians also died and over 40 people were wounded in the initial attack, and a policeman was killed in the final gun battlePeshawar is on the edge of Pakistan’s tribal region, the main sanctuary for al-Qaida and Taliban militants in the country. The city has frequently been attacked in the past few years, but Saturday was the first strike against the airport, which is jointly used by the air force and civilian authorities.The airport is the third major military base attacked by the Taliban in roughly the past 18 months, a sign of the militant group’s continued strength despite multiple army offensives targeting their tribal sanctuary.The militants killed on Sunday were hiding in an unfinished house in Pawaka village, located about 3 kilometers (2 miles) from the airport, said Mian Iftikhar Hussain, information minister in surrounding Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.Three of the militants were shot by security forces when they tried to escape, said Mr. Hussain. Both he and the military said the two other militants detonated their suicide vests when security forces stormed the building. One policeman was killed and another wounded in the gunfight, said Mr. Hussain