PIA aircraft comes under fire in Peshawar

 

PESHAWAR: A woman was killed and two persons, including a flight steward, were wounded when a passenger flight of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) came under attack while landing at the Bacha Khan International Airport in Peshawar on Tuesday night.
The woman passenger, who is said to be a foreigner, died of wounds en route to the Combined Military Hospital in Peshawar Cantonment, reports said.Sources said the PIA flight from Riyadh (No PK-756) wasabout to land in Peshawar when unidentified attackers opened fire on the aircraft. The bullets hit a woman, a steward and another person.

The firing panicked the passengers but the pilot safely landed the aircraft. Ambulances and security personnel encircled the parked aircraft.The wounded were taken to the CMH. The spokesman for the PIA confirmed the attack, saying that three persons had sustained injuries in the firing incident and were shifted to the CMH.

The attack was the first of its kind. There were a number of attacks on the airport in the past but it was for the first time that an aircraft was hit and its passengers were wounded.A search operation was launched in the Pishtakhara and Sarband areas after the attack while more security personnel were deployed around the airport and the airbase. While landing in Peshawar, all aircraft come close to the tribal areas and the nearby settled towns.

Taliban aimed to hit another target by hijacking aircraft

 

PESHAWAR: Claiming responsibility for the high-profile attack on the Jinnah International Airport in Karachi, the Pakistani Taliban said that they had planned to hijack the aircraft and to use them for hitting targets at another place.
“We proudly claim responsibility for the attack on the Karachi airport. It was revenge for the killing of Hakimullah Mehsud in a US drone attack in Miranshah with the help of Pakistani government. This is the beginning of our attacks we planned against the government and important security installations,” said Shahidullah Shahid, the spokesman of the outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

Another senior member of the Taliban also claimed that one of the aims behind storming the airport was to hijack the aircraft and to use them against targets. “We started preparations for the attack a few months ago and we knew that planes from around 30-40 countries are coming here. There were different reasons why we chose to attack the airport in Karachi. First, as I stated aircraft of 30-40 countries come here and it would send a message all over the world that Pakistan is an insecure place for flying. Secondly, we wanted to damage Pakistan economically. We wanted the country suffer losses but not the people. And then we wanted to convey a message that the Taliban have not been defeated but are still active,” the TTP leader explained. He claimed to have damaged about 12 aircraft there.

Also, he said the Karachi city and the airport there were considered to be the most secured installation in the country, and they decided to launch their strikes from the same place and give a message that no place was beyond their reach. “We had engineers and skilled people in the squad that stormed the airport. They knew how to operate a plane,” the TTP leader claimed.

He said some other ‘brotherly Jihadi organisations’ had helped them in the attack on the Karachi airport. However, when asked, he did not reject the involvement of al-Qaeda. “Besides other Jihadi organisations, al-Qaeda people are our brothers and we admit that we carried out this attack with the help of our other brotherly Mujahideen groups but it’s not important to us to name them publicly,” the Taliban leader argued.

Asked about the targets, the Taliban commander said they don’t mention their targets before attacking them. “As I stated, hijacking the planes was one part of our strategy of attacking the airport,” the militant commander noted.

Also, the Taliban issued a statement in Urdu language about the Karachi attack, which said the attack began at 10pm on Sunday night. They praised their suicide bombers and called them ‘eagles’ for successfully entering the airport. “During the overnight fighting with thousands of Pakistani security forces, our fighters used to set ablaze their targets at the airport. In the fighting, hundreds of security personnel were killed and dozens of aircraft were destroyed. We selected the target (Karachi airport), as we wanted to inflict heavy losses on the government and fewer fatalities to the people. And the Mujahideen succeeded 100 percent in this technique,” the Taliban claimed in the statement.

The Taliban claimed that they were serious and had started the peace talks with sincerity with the government as Hakimullah Mehsud had clarified during his last interview. “But we had made it clear initially that we would not allow the government to use the peace talks with the Taliban for their political and military purposes which the previous governments had done. The government responded to our sincere offer for peace talks to the killing of our leader Maulana Waliur Rahman and Hakimullah Mehsud, by conducting an announced military operation in the country against us and by killing our jailed colleagues and throwing their bodies on roads and bombing the innocent tribal people,” the Taliban stated in the statement.

It said that the Pakistani Taliban and their ‘brotherly Jihadi organisations’ were serious and sincere in talks but alleged that the government had responded to their offer in the form of preparing a military operation against them.

They announced to support Hafiz Gul Bahadur in North Waziristan and the tribal people in their fighting against the Pakistani security forces. “The attack on the Karachi airport is a message to the Pakistan government to avoid the use of force as the Taliban are still ready for holding serious peace talks with the government,” the Taliban said.

Solar aircraft makes successful debut

PAYERNE: A sun-powered plane made a successful test flight in Switzerland on Monday, clearing a vital hurdle towards its goal of a round-the-world trip next year, its pilot said.

Solar Impulse 2 carried out a flight lasting two hours and 15 minutes, half an hour longer than scheduled, he said. "Everything worked as expected," German pilot Markus Scherdel told a press conference in Payerne, central Switzerland. "Of course, we have to do more testing, but it´s a good start and I´m looking forward to flying the airplane the next time," he said.

Built from carbon fibre, the 2.3-tonne plane has four electrical motors powered by 17,248 solar cells studding its fuselage and 72-metre (234-feet) wingspan. It is the successor of Solar Impulse, a record-breaking craft that in 2010 notched up a 26-hour flight, proving its ability to store enough power during the day to keep flying at night.

The forerunner was put through its paces in Europe, crossed the Mediterranean to reach Morocco and traversed the United States last year without using a drop of fossil fuel. The goal with Solar Impulse 2 is to fly non-stop for more than 120 hours -- five days and five nights -- enabling it to cross the Pacific and Atlantic on its global flight. The operation will begin in the United Arab Emirates in March 2015 and circle the globe eastwards, making numerous stops on the way.

US defence chief to visit China's first aircraft carrier

TOKYO: US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is expected to get a rare tour Monday of China´s first aircraft carrier, becoming the first foreign visitor to go aboard the ship.

A senior defense official said Hagel requested the visit, which comes a day after he told reporters that China must better respect its neighbors — a pointed allusion to Beijing´s ongoing territorial dispute with Japan and others over remote islands in the East China Sea. He also has continued to urge Beijing to be more transparent about its expanding military.

China spent a decade refurbishing the derelict Soviet-era carrier bought from Ukraine before commissioning it as the Liaoning in 2012. It moved to Qingdao in February 2013 and is part of a major expansion of the Chinese navy that includes sophisticated new surface ships and submarines.

Early this year the Liaoning completed sea trials in the South China Sea. The official Xinhua News Agency said the carrier tested its combat system, conducted a formation practice and "attained the anticipated objectives.

"On Dec. 5, early in the Liaoning´s trial run, one of the Chinese ships accompanying it was involved in a near collision with a US Navy cruiser, the USS Cowpens, when it was operating in international waters in the South China Sea.

US Navy officials said the Cowpens maneuvered to avoid the collision, but it marked the two nations´ most serious sea confrontation in years. At the time, a Chinese media report said the U.S. ship got too close to the Liaoning.

Hagel is on a 10-day trip to the Asia Pacific region and was leaving Japan Monday to travel to China. He is scheduled to meet with senior Chinese leaders before traveling to Mongolia, then returning home.