rehman_malik_20090105Pakistan: Gunmen attack 3 sites in east, 18 killed

LAHORE, Pakistan — Teams of gunmen attacked three law enforcement facilities in Pakistan’s cultural heart of Lahore on Thursday, killing 18 people in an escalation of audacious terror strikes as the Taliban try to keep the government from waging a planned offensive on the militants.

Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik vowed not to let the attacks deter the government in its pursuit of Taliban and al Qaida fighters. “The enemy has started a guerrilla war,” Malik told a local television station.

In the Taliban-riddled northwest, meanwhile, a suicide car bomber detonated his vehicle next to a police station, killing at least eight people, while a suspected U.S. missile strike killed four alleged militants, officials said.

The militants have claimed credit for a series of attacks in recent days, including a siege of the army’s headquarters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi that left 23 people dead. The Taliban have warned Pakistan to stop pursuing them in military operations.

The U.S. has pushed Pakistan to wipe out militant strongholds on its soil, saying Taliban and al-Qaida fighters use the territory to launch attacks in Afghanistan. Pakistan’s attempts to do so have been met with retaliation over the years.

The three attacks Thursday gave the appearance that the militants can strike virtually any target they choose.

One attack Thursday in Lahore occurred at a building housing the Federal Investigation Agency, a law enforcement organization that deals with matters ranging from immigration to terrorism.

Senior government official Sajjad Bhutta said the attack lasted about 1 1/2 hours and was over by 11 a.m. He said the dead included two attackers, four government employees and a bystander. Senior police official Chaudhry Shafiq said one of the dead wore a jacket bearing explosives.

Two other groups of attackers struck police facilities in the area Lahore’s outskirts in violence that was continuing, Shafiq said.

One occurred at the Manawan police training school — killing 10 people, including six police and four gunmen.

It was the second time attackers have struck there this year. The earlier attack led to an eight-hour standoff with the army that left 12 people dead. No casualty figures were immediately available for the Thursday strike.

Another was at an elite police commando training center not far from the airport. Senior police official Malik Iqbal said at least one police constable was killed there.

Television footage showed helicopters in the air over one of the police facilities and paramilitary forces with rifles and bulletproof vests taking cover behind trees outside a wall surrounding the compound.

Lahore is far from the Pakistani Taliban’s main bases in the northwest, but it has suffered several high profile attacks. Government offices were ordered shut there Thursday and roads were nearly empty. Major markets did not open.

The Pakistani army has given no time frame for the expected offensive in South Waziristan tribal region, but has reportedly already sent two divisions totaling 28,000 men and blockaded the area.

Fearing the looming offensive, about 200,000 people have fled South Waziristan since August, moving in with relatives or renting homes in the Tank and Dera Ismail Khan areas, a local government official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

Ahmad reported from Islamabad. Associated Press Writers Rasool Dawar in Mir Ali, Ishtiaq Mahsud in Dera Ismail Khan and Riaz Khan in Peshawar also contributed to this report.