www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/07/10/pakistan.mosque/index.html#cnnSTCPhotoISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Eight Pakistani commandos and 50 student militants are dead after Pakistani security forces stormed an Islamabad mosque compound Tuesday morning, minutes after negotiations fell through between a government delegation and radical Islamic students inside, military sources said.
An army armored vehicle moves towards the Red Mosque in Islamabad, Pakistan on Tuesday.
Gunfire erupted moments after an announcement from the government's chief negotiator, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, that talks to end the standoff had failed. As dawn broke over the Pakistani capital, heavy black smoke rose from the site of the mosque and the death toll began to rise.
Dozens of ambulances were parked near the site, waiting for the area to be safe enough to enter.
"After 11 hours of negotiations, we are deeply disappointed that the talks did not succeed," Hussain said, adding that Abdul Rashid Ghazi -- the cleric leading the stand-off inside -- said "no" to every offer from the government.
Fifteen commandos and 20 militants have been wounded in fresh fighting, the military said. Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad told CNN that 50 militants had surrendered by late morning.
Twenty children escaped the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, as fighting began around 4 a.m. Tuesday (11 p.m. GMT Monday), a Pakistani army spokesman said, adding that the children were safe and in the custody of the Pakistan Rangers, a paramilitary organization.
Nine hours later, about 20 women left the mosque, CNN's Syed Mohsin Naqvi said. The fate of scores more hostages held by the militant students is still unknown.
The week-long standoff between Pakistani security forces and the students has left at least 77 people dead with government forces facing heavy resistance from students seeking Taliban-style rule in Islamabad, an army spokesman said.
"The security forces are facing stiff resistance from the militants, but we are making tangible progress," said Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad of the Pakistani armed forces.
Arshad said the operation was aimed at clearing the militants out of the mosque, and he expected the operation would last four to five hours, adding that the militants were barricaded in several parts of the compound, including the basement.
"The militants are quite well armed," he said. "They have small arms, they have rockets, they have grenades."
Pakistani Information Minister Tariq Azim Khan told CNN that there were 300 hostages inside the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, and the government hoped to get them out safely. Watch Pakistan's interior minister discuss the mosque raid
"We have tried our very best to settle this matter amicably," he said. "... We have no choice but to use force, which we always maintained as a last option."
Khan said that between 40 and 60 "hardcore militants" were inside the mosque.
"Hopefully this operation can be concluded pretty shortly," he said. "We will try to keep casualties at a minimum."
Tensions had been simmering for months between police and the students at mosque, who are blamed for a string of recent kidnappings of civilians, Chinese nationals and Pakistani police.
The government has been investigating the activities of the mosque, whose students who are demanding that Taliban-style rule be imposed in the city.
Two students trying to surrender Friday were shot dead by other students in the mosque, intelligence sources said, but gave no additional details of how the shootings occurred.
Ghazi claimed more than 300 people have been killed since Tuesday, but an interior ministry spokesman said the ministry completely rejects that claim.
The violence began Tuesday when about 150 militant Islamic students attacked a police checkpoint close to the mosque. Street clashes quickly erupted, with police firing tear gas at the students and the students fighting back with guns and sticks. They then took refuge in the mosque and an adjoining women's seminary, which the troops subsequently surrounded.
More than 1,200 people, mainly students from the mosque's two Islamic schools, have already fled the compound, but officials don't know exactly how many remain.
Ghazi has said there are 1,900 still in the compound. Meanwhile his brother, Maulana Abdul Aziz, said there are only about 850 inside. Other intelligence sources have told CNN that there are about 800 to 900.
Aziz, the top cleric at the Red Mosque, was captured Wednesday while trying to slip out of the mosque disguised in a burqa -- the head-to-toe covering worn by some Muslim women.
At least 50 of those still inside are well-armed hard-liners, Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao said Friday.
Although conditions inside the mosque are unknown, friends and relatives outside the mosque are worried for their loved ones.
"I ask these people to leave my son. We are even ready to pay. My son! My son!" said Mozamil Shah, the father of one young boy still holed up inside the mosque.
In efforts to oust the group, officials have cut off water, gas and electricity to the compound. Officials also disconnected 12 telephones Sunday, but an Interior Ministry official told CNN they had no way of shutting down cell phone service from within the mosque.
We never took over a mosque when we were in school.
(...thinks the terrorists were simply participating in "Take Your Child to Jihad" day.)