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Taliban terrorists wearing suicide vests,and carrying rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons,stormed a major Pakistan air force base believed to house nuclear weapons early Thursday,triggering a fierce gunbattle that left all nine terrorists and a soldier dead,and parts of the complex in flames.
The terrorists breached at least three barriers to enter the Minhas airbase at Kamra in Attock district,some 40 km from Islamabad around 2 am,and tried to destroy fighters including F-16s and China-made JF-17s and Saab-2000 surveillance aircraft.
US defence secretary Leon Panetta had only a day earlier expressed renewed fear about Pakistans nukes falling into terrorists hands. Kamra is thought to be home to a part of Pakistans at least 100-warhead nuclear arsenal.
An air force spokesperson said eight terrorists were killed inside the base and the ninth exploded himself outside the perimeter where he was hiding. A soldier was killed and Air Commodore Muhammad Azam,the commander of the base,took a bullet in the shoulder during the three-hour firefight.
One aircraft was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade,the spokesperson said,but gave no details of the aircraft or of the extent of damage it suffered.
Tehrik-e-Taliban spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan said their suicide bombers had carried out the attack to avenge the killing of militant commander Baitullah Mehsud and Osama bin Laden. The attack had dealt a lethal blow to the security forces,Ihsan said. PTI
