It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
Gunmen have attacked and entered a Pakistan air force base, according to Reuters. The target is the Kamra Air Base, located around 40 miles outside Islamabad. The attacked is believed to be conducted by the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)
Reports in the Pakistan press have suggested they were planning attacks in retaliation for upcoming military action. A three hour gun battle is reportedly raging between security guards and attackers. Time Magazine's Omar Waraich points out that this is the third attack on the base since 2007. Worryingly, the militants may have good reason to attack the base. Waraich says that the site is home of Pakistan's nascent drone program, and a Telegraph report from 2009 said the site was thought to house Pakistan's nuclear weapons.
4:55am A Pakistan Army squad has arrived at the base to take part in the operation. The attack is similar to that on the Karachi navy airbase. 4:45am It was an organized attack and firing from both sides is continuing. The army has been called in to control the situation. The militants also hurled hand grenades, sources added. Kamra is an airbase where assembling of the JF-17 is carried out. Sources further said the militants failed to reach the aircrafts due to prompt action of the security forces.
Originally posted by miniatus
Reuters reported it first via twitter.. ok this is officially scary.. hopefully it turns out to be nothing..
Sounds like there is no risk of someone getting a bomb since they claim "parts" are scattered about, so you can't have a nuke just from what you get at one place.. but they could in fact get radioactive material.. still not good
This is is pakistan is being honest about thatedit on 8/15/2012 by miniatus because: (no reason given)
Originally posted by miniatus
Sounds like there is no risk of someone getting a bomb since they claim "parts" are scattered about, so you can't have a nuke just from what you get at one place
The Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is planning attacks on the Pakistan Air Force Base and other military and security establishments in Lahore before Eid, according to intelligence reports received by the Home Department.
5:35am A statement from the PAF says that the body of a suicide bomber strapped with explosives was found close to the “impact area”. 5:25am Express News reports that five militants have been killed so far. There were reports that nine militants had attacked the airbase.
KARACHI: Heavily armed militants stormed the Pakistan Air Force’s (PAF) Kamra airbase located in Attock, Punjab during the early hours of Thursday, DawnNews reported.
An Air Force spokesman confirmed that the base had come under attack from militants, however he declined to give any further details.
According to sources, up to ten militants were estimated to have attacked the base from Pind Salman Makhan village at around 2:30 am. The militants were said to be heavily armed with automatic weapons, grenades and suicide vests. Intense exchange of fire between militants and forces was still underway at the time of reporting.
Additional Army troops were called in to assist in the operation. According to the latest updates, security forces were said to have cordoned off the area and commandos of the Army and PAF were engaged an intense gun battle with the attackers.
It is not known if there are any casualties from the attack from far.
Karma airbase is a heavily guarded compound with the Pakistan Air Force’s Kamra Aeronautical Complex in its vicinity, where Pakistan assembles and overhauls fighter jets in collaboration with China. Located about 70 kms from the Pakistani capital Islamabad, the base is known to house the PAF’s JF-7 Thunder and Mirage jets.
Sources confirmed that at least 30 aircraft were on the base.
In recent weeks, military intelligence had warned of the possibility of such an attack on military installations. However, there was no specific information about an attack being targeted at the Kamra base.
This is not the first time that Kamra has been the target of a terrorist attack. On Oct 23, 2009, a suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance of the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex in Kamra. Two security officers and six other people were killed in the attack.
6:10am A search operation is currently underway at the base and there are reports that three militants are possibly in hiding. There are reports that aircraft present at the base were not damaged during the attack.
The Pakistani Taliban targeted an air base believed to be one of the country’s secret nuclear weapons facilities on Friday among a wave of suicide bombings that killed at least 25 people across the country.
Pakistan Carts Its Nukes Around In Delivery Vans
By Spencer Ackerman
Pakistan is taking nuclear paranoia to a horrifying new low. And it’s making the world a vastly more dangerous place in the process.
Freaked out about the insecurity of its nuclear arsenal, the Pakistani military’s Strategic Plans Division has begun carting the nukes around in clandestine ways. That might make some sense on the surface: no military wants to let others know exactly where its most powerful weapons are at any given moment. But Pakistan is going to an extreme.
The nukes travel “in civilian-style vehicles without noticeable defenses, in the regular flow of traffic,” according to a blockbuster story on the U.S.-Pakistan relationship in The Atlantic. Marc Ambinder and Jeffrey Goldberg write that tactical nuclear weapons travel down the streets in “vans with a modest security profile.” Somewhere on a highway around, say, Karachi, is the world’s most dangerous 1-800-FLOWERS truck.
www.wired.com...
up to ten militants were estimated to have attacked the base
An air force spokesman said the air base at Kamra, in central Punjab province, did not house nuclear weapons. "No air base is a nuclear air base in Pakistan," he said.
Television channels said two soldiers and six of the attackers were killed in the fighting. It was not immediately clear if the attack was beaten back but a Reuters reporter who reached Kamra in the morning did not hear any gunfire.
An air force statement said commandos exchanged gunfire with "terrorists" for hours at the Minhas base in Kamra.
"Terrorists" is the term Pakistani authorities use to describe militant groups such as the Taliban.
The overnight assault challenged official assertions that military operations had severely weakened militants waging a violent campaign to topple the U.S.-backed government and impose strict Islamic rule.
ATTOCK: Seven heavily armed militants stormed the Pakistan Air Force’s (PAF) Minhas airbase at Kamra during the early hours of Thursday, sparking an intense gun battle lasting almost five hours, DawnNews reported.