Attack on Indian airbase enters day two

At least seven soldiers, including a prize-winning shooter, and four attackers were killed at the Pathankot airbase in Punjab in western India.

The heavily armed gunmen, suspected to be members of the Islamist group Jaish-e-Mohammed, launched the attack on the station. Four attackers and two soldiers were killed in Saturday's shooting. Three guards succumbed to their injuries overnight and three others were killed on Sunday morning after a bomb, believed to have been planted by the gunmen, exploded while being defused.

"Combing operations have continued through the night," senior Punjab police officer Vijay Pratap Singh told the "India Today" news channel. The bodies of the four gunmen had been recovered but two more terrorists were hiding in the airbase, Singh told reporters. The Press Trust of India (PTI) also posted this tweet:

The army also recovered assault rifles, mortars, grenade launchers and Global Positioning System devices from the scene.

However, the terrorists were unable to enter the area where high-value aircraft were parked, India's defense ministry said in a statement. Earlier, the government had said it had received intelligence about militants trying to attack military installations in Pathankot, at the border to Pakistan.

The attack, which comes shortly after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid a surprise visit to Pakistan, is a rare example of gunmen targeting an area outside the disputed territory of Kashmir.

mg/se (dpa, AFP)