Heavily armed militants stormed a Pakistani Air Force base on Thursday, sparking clashes that left 10 people dead.
Heavily armed militants stormed a Pakistani Air Force base on Thursday, sparking clashes that left 10 people dead.
One security official was killed and a plane damaged in the pre-dawn assault at PAF Base of Minhas, where suspected extremists again showed their ability to penetrate a sensitive military site five years into a Taliban insurgency.
The Pakistan Air Force said nine attackers dressed in military uniforms and armed with rocket propelled-grenades and suicide vests targeted the base and adjacent Pakistan Aeronautical Complex at 2:00 am (21:00 GMT Wednesday).
The complex assembles Mirage and, with Chinese help, JF-17 fighter jets.
PAF Minhas, in the town of Kamra northwest of Islamabad, has been attacked twice before.
Witnesses said the attackers came round the back, exploiting the holiest night of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan to remain undetected as long as possible.
"Eight miscreants were killed inside the Minhas base boundary wall and one miscreant exploded himself outside the perimeters where he was hiding," the air force announced in an updated statement.
It said there had been a shootout "for more than two hours" and 10 hours after the assault began, spokesman Tariq Mahmoud confirmed the base was "totally safe".
Mahmood said one security official had been killed, and the base commander wounded in the shoulder. Previous militant assaults on Pakistani military bases have exacted far higher casualty tolls.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the Thursday's attack was the second in weeks to see troops die near the relatively secure capital. Gunmen on July 9 killed seven security personnel who had camped by a river less than 160 kilometers (100 miles) southeast of Islamabad.
Pakistan says 35,000 of its people, including more than 3,000 soldiers, have been killed as a result of terrorism since the 9/11 attacks and the 2001 US-led invasion of neighboring Afghanistan.
The base in Kamra was previously targeted on October 23, 2009 when a suicide bomber killed six civilians and two Pakistan Air Force personnel at a checkpoint.
