Gunmen attack Pakistan air force base, 10 dead

KAMRA: Heavily armed militants stormed a Pakistani air force base on Thursday, sparking clashes that left 10 people dead and raised concerns about the safety of the country’s nuclear arsenal.

One security official was killed and a plane damaged in the pre-dawn assault at PAF Base Minhas, where suspected Islamists again showed their ability to penetrate a sensitive military site five years into a Taliban insurgency.

There has been a lull in recent attacks, but speculation is now heavy that Pakistan could bow to US demands for an operation against militants in their premier fortress of North Waziristan, in the tribal belt on the Afghan border.

An official denied there were nuclear weapons on the base, but the audacious assault would likely raise further questions in the West about the dangers of Pakistan’s atomic weapons falling into extremists’ hands.

The Pakistan Air Force said that nine attackers dressed in military uniforms and armed with rocket propelled-grenades and suicide vests targeted the base and adjacent Pakistan Aeronautical Complex.

“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 said. There had been a shootout “for more than two hours” and 10 hours after the assault began.

Previous militant assaults on Pakistani military bases have exacted far higher casualty tolls. There was no claim of responsibility but the Pakistani Taliban have targeted a string of military bases since rising up against the government in July 2007. AFP