Pakistan's Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility for an attack on a security academy at Karachi's airport on Tuesday, less than 48 hours after an all-night siege by Taliban gunmen at Pakistan's busiest airport that killed more than 30 people, according to The Associated Press.
The late Sunday assault destroyed prospects for peace talks between the Taliban and the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and triggered speculation that the army might opt for an all-out offensive against militant strongholds, the AP reported.
On Tuesday, a group of gunmen on motorcycles opened fire on an academy run by the Airports Security Force and fled after security forces retaliated, but no one was hurt, officials said, according to the AP.
"We accept responsibility for another successful attack against the government," Pakistani Taliban spokesman Shahidullah Shahid said, the AP reported.
"We are successfully achieving all our targets and we will go on carrying on many more such attacks," according to the AP.
Ten militants disguised as security force members and armed with rocket-propelled grenades broke into the airport in the first attack, one of the most brazen in a long-running Pakistani Taliban insurgency, the AP reported. At least 34 people were killed.
Pakistani authorities discovered more bodies from that siege Tuesday morning, according to the AP. Airport authorities found seven bodies in a burned building at the airport, charred beyond recognition, said the head of the Karachi Municipal Corporation, Rauf Akhtar Farooqi.
Reflecting an atmosphere of nervousness, Karachi airport suspended all flights in and out of the sprawling city of 18 million for the second time in two days, although most flights were restored later on in the day, according to the AP.
Earlier on Tuesday, Pakistani fighter jets bombed Taliban positions on the Afghan border, the AP reported.
"Nine terrorist hideouts were destroyed by early morning military air strikes near the Pakistan-Afghan border," the army's press wing said, adding that 25 militants were killed, according to the AP.
