Personnel from the Airport Security Force, which is tasked with protecting Karachi airport, exchanged fire with gunmen on Tuesday, officials told news agencies. TV footage showed paramilitary vehicles and ambulances heading towards the scene of the attack.

The gunmen reportedly first fired on personnel guarding the facility and fled after the guards returned fire. The ASF campus is located some 500 meters from the main airport premises.

Flights in and out of the airport resumed after briefly being suspended during the assault.

The Pakistani Taliban took responsibility for the latest attack. "They were our men," tweeted Taliban commander Umer Khalid Khorasani, head of the Taliban in Mohmand tribal district near the Afghan border.

The latest assault follows an attack launched late Sunday by at least 10 militants on Karachi's international airport. After hours of fighting, security forces regained control of the airport. The attack, which was claimed by the Pakistani Taliban, killed at least 19 people.

Airstrike on militants

The violence comes the same day as Pakistani army officials announced that a morning airstrike in the Tirah Valley of Pakistan's Khyber trial region had destroyed "nine terrorist hideouts" and killed at least 15 militants.

This death toll could not be independently verified.

The area is part of a lawless terrain along the Afghan border where Taliban and al Qaeda-linked militants have strongholds.

The Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), has been waging a bloody insurgency against the state since 2007, which has killed thousands of people.

Tuesday's military assault is the latest in a succession of such attacks carried out by the country's military in the tribal belt after talks with the Taliban broke down earlier this year. In May, strikes carried out by the army in North Waziristan killed at least 75 people.

dr/msh (AFP, AP, Reuters, dpa)