Nine killed as Taliban attack Pak air force base

Eight terrorists and a security official were killed following an audacious attack by heavily armed Taliban militants, who stormed a Pakistani Air Force base, just 60 km from Islamabad, in the early hours of Thursday.

The militants, armed with rocket-propelled grenades and other heavy weaponry, attacked the Kamra PAF base at Minhas around 2 am. According to air force officials, eight militants, dressed in military uniforms and sporting suicide vests, attacked the base, which has several fighter jets including F-16s and Mirages.

With increasing attacks by Taliban terrorists on Pakistani military bases, there have been fears that the country's nuclear arsenal could fall into their hands.

But on Thursday, a US official in Washington DC said there was no indication that the attack had endangered Pakistan's nuclear stockpile.

The Kamra PAF base had been targeted by terrorists earlier as well. In October 2009, a suicide bomber blew up near a checkpoint, killing two air force personnel and six civilians. Two years earlier, five children were wounded after a suicide car bomber hit a school bus near the base.

The most daring Taliban attack on a military base occurred in May 2011, when half-a-dozen terrorists attacked the Mehran naval station in Karachi. At least 10 persons were killed and two American surveillance aircraft were also destroyed by the time Pakistani commandos retook the base after 18 hours.

The army headquarters in Rawalpindi had also been attacked by terrorists in 2009, who took 30 people hostage. Seven persons were killed by the time Pakistani commandos retook the compound almost a day later.

Thursday's incident, in which an aircraft inside a hangar was also damaged following a rocket attack, came just two days after Pakistani general Ashraf Kayani admitted in his Independence day speech that the war on terror was Pakistan's war, and ''a just war.''

The Pakistani military plans to launch an offensive in North Waziristan, a hub for Taliban terrorists, bordering Afghanistan.

The Taliban, originally propped up by the Pakistani military and the government, has now turned on its original backers and has stepped up attacks. It accuses Pakistan of supporting the US mission in Afghanistan.

The Pakistan government claims that over 30,000 people, including more than 3,000 soldiers, have been killed following the US-led invasion of Afghanistan.

Pakistan, however, continues to treat terrorists targeting India with kid gloves. It refuses to take action against armed terror groups, many of who have links with the Taliban.