News
Friday, August 17, 2012
Taliban assault on Kamra airbase foiled* All nine terrorists, one security official killed; one aircraft damaged
* Base chief receives bullet injury
* Taliban claim attack
* Air Marshal Bukhari to lead PAF inquiry
ISLAMABAD: Nine terrorists were killed when security forces foiled their attack on PAF base Minhas in Kamra early on Thursday.
A security official was also killed and a plane damaged in the pre-dawn assault claimed by the Taliban.
PAF 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 2am.
The adjacent complex assembles Mirage and, with Chinese help, JF-17 fighter jets. “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.
It said there had been a shootout “for more than two hours”, and 10 hours after the assault began, spokesman Tariq Mahmood confirmed the base was “totally safe”.
The Taliban said planes at the base were being used to kill their fighters.
Their spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan dedicated the attack to late al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and claimed four Taliban fighters were killed after destroying three aircraft and killing a dozen soldiers.
A PAF spokesman said Base Commander Air Commodore Muhammad Azam, who was leading the operation against the terrorists, also received a bullet injury.
An air force statement said Air Chief Marshal Tahir Rafique Butt had appointed a four-member board of inquiry headed by Air Marshal Syed Athar Hussain Bukhari.
Witnesses said the attackers came from the back, scaling the wall and exploiting the holiest night of Ramazan to remain undetected as long as possible.
“Most of the male residents (from the village at the back) were in mosques for special prayers,” local resident Athar Abbas told a TV channel.
“I heard three or four explosions, there was heavy gunfire also,” he said, adding, “It appears that the militants arrived using a village track and climbed over the wall.” agencies
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk