Pakistani Taliban militants attacked an air force base in the country’s restive northwest Friday, killing at least 17 people in their deadliest high-profile assault in months following a major military offensive against them.

Pakistani Taliban militants attacked an air force base in the country's restive northwest Friday, killing at least 17 people in their deadliest high-profile assault in months following a major military offensive against them.

The army said that the group of insurgents launched the assault at dawn at the residential compound near Peshawar, the gateway to tribal regions on the Afghan border that have long been a haven for militants.

Soldiers quickly surrounded the attackers, confining them to a small area and killing at least 13 of them, according to the military's main spokesman Major General Asim Bajwa.

But he said in a tweet that a group of militants attacked a mosque within the camp compound and killed 16 people offering dawn prayers. Separately an army captain was killed in fighting with the insurgents, he said.

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) group claimed responsibility in an e-mail sent to journalists, saying their "suicide unit" carried out the attack.

The attack on the Badaber base, 10 kilometers (six miles) south of Peshawar, triggered fierce gun battles between insurgents and the military in which at least 10 soldiers were wounded.

Bajwa said operations were continuing to flush out any remaining gunmen and hailed the defenders' reaction to the attack.

He said Peshawar's Brigade Commander led the operation along with specialist "quick response" forces, army commandos and air force personnel.

The army launched the "Zarb-e-Azb" operation in June 2014 in a bid to wipe out militant bases in North Waziristan tribal area and so bring an end to the bloody decade-long terrorist insurgency that has cost Pakistan thousands of lives.