The New Great Game Round-Up #55

The Great Game Round-Up brings you the latest newsworthy developments regarding Central Asia and the Caucasus region. We document the struggle for influence, power, hegemony and profits between a U.S.-dominated NATO, its GCC proxies, Russia, China and other regional players.

Last Sunday, Jinnah International Airport in Karachi, became the focus of attention, when ten terrorists dressed in uniforms of the Airport Security Force stormed Pakistan's largest and busiest airport sparking a five-hour gun battle with security forces that killed at least 39 people, including the ten attackers. Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), as the Pakistani Taliban is formally known, immediately claimed responsibility for the attack citing the killing of former emir Hakimullah Mehsud and government airstrikes in North Waziristan as motivation. Just a week before the commando-style assault on Karachi's airport, Pakistani media had talked about a split within the Taliban. One of the Mehsud factions led by Said Khan Sajna made public that they are leaving the TTP. Pakistan's government, sensing weakness, announced a group of tribal elders in Waziristan to evict all the foreign fighters from the region giving them an ultimatum of 15 days. Within these 15 days, the TTP responded in its own way and it did so with the help of some foreign fighters:

Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan Claims Karachi Airport Attack

A statement attributed to the IMU began circulating online on June 10. It included photos of 10 men wearing turbans and holding Kalashnikovs, claiming they were IMU fighters who carried out the attack in Karachi as revenge for “bombardments and night attacks with fighter jets” by Pakistani armed forces in the northwestern Waziristan region.

The attack left at least 39 dead, including the 10 militants. After securing the airport, Pakistani security forces claimed the gunmen were ethnic Uzbeks. “The militants appear to be Uzbek,” Reuters quoted one official as saying.

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