Attackers fired three rockets at an airport housing Pakistan military troops hunting for al-Qaida and Taliban fugitives, but there were no injuries or damage, a military official said Sunday.

The attack occurred late Friday in Bannu, a conservative tribal city about 250 kilometers (155 miles) southwest of the capital, Islamabad, said Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, a military spokesman.

There was no claim of responsibility and Sultan said officials were investigating who was responsible. ``We are ascertaining details of the attack,'' he said.
Two rockets exploded in deserted areas inside the airport grounds. The third rocket failed to explode, he said.

Bannu is located at the edge of a tribal region where Pakistani and US officials are searching for al-Qaida and Taliban fugitives, who are believed to use Pakistani soil to launch attacks into neighboring Afghanistan.

Local residents reported earlier this week that the military had stepped up activity in the area, sending dozens of helicopters to Bannu airport. Some helicopters were spotted carrying ``foreign'' troops, a reference to American forces. The helicopters were flying over the tribal area near Bannu.

But on Sunday, the helicopters were gone and the tiny airport all but abandoned.
Abbas Khan, 60, a worker at the airport, told The Associated Press that the Pakistani military had pulled out Saturday afternoon after an operation that lasted several days.

``At 3 p.m. all the helicopters and troops left. They were here for three days. There were a lot of flights but we don't know what they were doing,'' said Khan, who has worked at the airport for 20 years.

Ismail Khan, the owner of a tea house near the airport, said there were many Pakistani soldiers in the area, and that the townspeople speculated they were looking for al-Qaida.

``It was the talk of the town that they were here searching for al-Qaida people,'' said Khan. ``We don't have any al-Qaida people here in our area.''

Pakistan's military has said it deployed the troops in Bannu for a ``routine exercise.''

A resident of Bannu, Inayat Khan, said on Saturday he heard explosions around the airport.

The tribal region borders Afghanistan. Sympathies among the tribesman run high for the Taliban because many share the ousted militia's harsh interpretation of Islam and its Pashtun ethnicity.

A US-led coalition ousted the Taliban in late 2001 for harboring al-Qaida, which is blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.

Local tribesman resent the presence of foreign and Pakistani troops in their areas and are also suspected of sheltering fugitives from the two groups.

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