Islamist
militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons
fought their way into one of Pakistan's largest air bases on Thursday,
the air force said, in a brazen challenge to the nuclear-armed country's
powerful military.
Only one aircraft was damaged, said an
air force spokesman, adding that the Minhas air base at Kamra, in
central Punjab province, did not house nuclear weapons. "No air base is a
nuclear air base in Pakistan," he said.
A gunbattle raged
for hours after the attack started. Commandos were called in to
reinforce and police armoured personnel carriers could be seen heading
into the base.
Eight militants and one soldier were killed,
the spokesman said. The attackers moved through a nearby village under
cover of darkness and climbed a nine foot (2.7 metre) wall strung with
barbed wire to break into the base. Some were wearing military uniforms.
The
assault cast doubts over official assertions that military operations
had severely weakened militants waging a violent campaign to topple the
US-backed government and impose strict Islamic rule.
Security
forces opened fire when militants strapped with suicide bombing vests
approached aircraft hangars, prompting other militants to fire
rocket-propelled grenades from outside the base's walls, said the air
force spokesman.
Base commander Air Commodore Muhammad
Azam, who led the operation against the attackers, was shot in the
shoulder, but is in stable condition, said spokesman Captain Tariq
Mahmood.
It was not immediately clear if the attack was
beaten back but a Reuters reporter who reached Kamra in the morning did
not hear any gunfire. Combing and sweeping operations were still
underway.
"We are checking every inch of the complex to make sure there are no other miscreants," said Mahmood.
Minhas,
75 km (45 miles) northeast of Islamabad, is adjacent to the Pakistan
Aeronautical Complex, a major air force research and development centre.
Pakistan manufactures JF-17 fighter planes, jointly developed with
China, at the site.
Suicide bombers launched attacks near
the base and the aeronautical complex in 2007 and 2009, but news reports
said defences were not breached.
HOLY MONTH
It
was not immediately clear how the attackers managed to enter the
sprawling base this time. Although the attack took place at about 2 a.m.
(2100 GMT Wednesday), it is likely many of the soldiers on the base
were awake for prayers or breakfast during the holy fasting month of
Ramadan.
Faheemullah Khan, a civilian who lives near the
base, said he was at a mosque praying when he heard gunfire and
explosions which he thought were military exercises.
"Then we came to a restaurant, which is next to the main entrance to the base, and heard a louder explosion," he said.
"We saw six police vans rush in, and realised something was wrong."
Several squadrons of fighters and surveillance planes are believed to be based at Minhas.
"One body of a suicide bomber strapped with explosives has been found close to the impact area," said an air force statement.
Pakistan's
Taliban movement has staged a number of high-profile attacks over the
past few years, including one on army headquarters in Rawalpindi in
2009.
Last year, six Taliban gunmen attacked a naval base
in Pakistan's biggest city Karachi to avenge the killing of Osama bin
Laden. At least 10 military personnel were killed and 20 wounded in the
16-hour assault.
Those attacks, and the latest one, are
embarrassing for Pakistan's military, which has ruled the country for
more than half of its 65-year history and is seen as the most efficient
state institution.
The Taliban, which is close to al Qaeda, is blamed for many of the suicide bombings across Pakistan, a strategic US ally.
Pakistan's
military, one of the biggest in the world, has staged several
offensives against Taliban strongholds in the unruly tribal areas near
the border with Afghanistan.
But the operations have failed
to break the back of the Taliban. Major suicide bombings have eased
considerably over the past year but that could be due to a tactical
shift and not pressure from the military.
