Soldiers Storm Mosque in Pakistan, Killing Dozens

Aamir Qureshi/AFP/Getty Images

Pakistani soldiers stormed Islamabad's Red Mosque, flushing out remaining militants holed up inside a women's religious school in a fierce gun battle Tuesday that killed at least 50 militants and eight soldiers, the army said.

Pakistani soldiers stormed Islamabad's Red Mosque, flushing out remaining militants holed up in a women's religious school, in a fierce gun battle Tuesday that killed at least 50 militants and eight soldiers, the army said.

The troops entered the mosque compound before dawn. Ten hours later, they were still trying to clear the building of well-armed defenders said to be holding hostages. Officials said at least 50 women were allowed to go free from the complex after 26 children had escaped earlier.

Among the dead was a radical cleric, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, who had vowed earlier to die rather than surrender. He was killed as the troops invaded the mosque, a government spokesman said.

The seige began a week ago after clashes between security forces and supporters of the mosque's hard-line clerics who want to bring Taliban-style rule to Pakistan. They have conducted a six-month campaign of kidnappings and threats.

Amid the sounds of rolling explosions, commandos attacked from three directions about 4 a.m. and quickly cleared the ground floor of the mosque, army spokesman Gen. Waheed Arshad said. Some 20 children who rushed toward the advancing troops were brought to safety, he said.

Two dozen others who fled were captured by security forces, Arshad said, without giving further details about those trapped inside.

Arshad said more hostages were being held and that fighting continued to be intense.

"We are taking a step-by-step approach so there is no collateral damage," he told reporters. "We are fighting room by room." He added that stun grenades were being used to avoid casualties among the hostages.

In addition to the women, Arshad said, about 50 suspected militants, some of them youngsters, were captured or had emerged from the mosque since the fighting erupted Tuesday.

He said the army attack shifted focus to the women's school but that some militants were still firing from the tops of the mosque's minarets. He said the entire compound included 75 rooms, large basements and expansive courtyards.

Pakistan's Religious Affairs Minister Mohammed Ijaz ul-Haq - quoting the mosque's leader - said foreign militants were among the defenders. He did not give the numbers or their nationalities.

The assault began minutes after a delegation led by a former prime minister left the area declaring that efforts to negotiate a peaceful end to a week-old siege had failed.

The assault was signaled by blasts and gunfire. About three and a half hours after the assault started, Arshad said, 50 to 60 percent of the complex had been "cleared" but resistance continued in "various places."

Some 40 militants had been killed, and 15 to 20 had been wounded. Arshad said three special forces commandos were also killed and 15 were wounded.

From NPR reports and The Associated Press