A suicide assault team attacked a Pakistani airbase in Punjab province that is known to house nuclear weapons.
The assault team, which is reported to have up to six members,
attacked the Kamra Air Force Base in Attock district in Punjab at 2:30
a.m. on Aug. 16,
according to Dawn. The terrorist team was wearing military uniforms and was "armed with automatic weapons, grenades and suicide vests."
The gunmen opened fire after being stopped at a checkpoint and then
reportedly fought their way to the airstrip, where some 30 fighter and
attack aircraft are kept, according to reports. Pakistani Army commandos
and Air Force security personnel engaged and killed six members of the
suicide assault team,
according to SAMAA.
One of those killed was said to be a "foreigner," but his identity and
country of origin have not been disclosed. Two Pakistani soldiers were
killed and an Air Commodore was wounded during the fighting.
While no group has claimed credit, the Movement of the Taliban in
Pakistan and the Punjabi Taliban are the prime suspects. On Aug. 1,
The Express Tribune reported
that Hakeemullah Mehsud, the leader of the Movement of the Taliban in
Pakistan, had allocated funds to attack "PAF base Lahore, the
Inter-Services Intelligence, Military Intelligence, Intelligence Bureau
and the Counter Terrorism Department office in the province."
The Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan has conducted numerous
attacks against government installations in Punjab in the past. In July,
the group executed two attacks in Punjab against security personnel.
On July 12,
the Taliban claimed credit for an attack that day on a police facility
in Lahore that killed eight policemen, as well as a July 9 attack in
Gurjat that killed six soldiers and a policeman.
The attack at Kamra Air Force Base is similar to another assault, which took place on May 22, 2011
at Pakistani Naval Station Mehran in Karachi.
During that assault, the Taliban destroyed two US-made 3C Orion
maritime surveillance planes and damaged another, and killed 10
Pakistani troops.
Another brazen attack took place
at Army General Headquarters in Rawalpindi on Oct. 10, 2009.
A suicide assault team stormed the facility and took control of several
buildings before being killed. Six Pakistani soldiers, including a
brigadier general and a lieutenant colonel, and four terrorists were
killed during the siege.
The Taliban have conducted an attack once before at Kamra Air Force
Base, in December 2007. A suicide bomber wounded seven Pakistani
personnel in that attack. Additionally, suicide bombers have conducted
attacks at a nearby weapons facility thought to be associated with
Pakistan's nuclear program.
In August 2008, two Taliban suicide bombers
killed 70 Pakistani employees
when the bombers detonated outside the gates of the Wah Cantt. And in
October 2009, a suicide bomber struck at the nearby Kamra Air Weapon
Complex, killing four civilians. The Kamra facility is one of three
military industrial production facilities in the Wah Cantt and is
believed to be connected with Pakistan's nuclear weapons program.
Components for nuclear weapons are thought to be stored at the facility
disassembled, and can be assembled within hours of needed use.
Suicide bombers have also conducted an attack at the Sargodha Air
Force Base, in November 2007. In that attack, a suicide bomber drove his
motorcycle into a bus carrying military and intelligence officers at
the air base,
killing eight Pakistanis.
The Sargodha Air Force Base is the headquarters of the Central Air
Command and houses nuclear-capable F-16 strike aircraft and ballistic
missiles. Nuclear weapons are also thought to be stored at the base.
In the past, the Pakistani government and the military have issued
multiple statements assuring the Pakistani people and the West that the
country's nuclear weapons are safeguarded and incapable of falling into
the hands of terrorists. The US government has alternated between
expressing confidence and voicing concern over the security of
Pakistan's nuclear weapons.
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