Friday, Mar 29th 2024
Trending News

Peshawar: 29, including 13 terrorists, killed in attack on Pakistan air base

By FnF Correspondent | PUBLISHED: 18, Sep 2015, 10:05 am IST | UPDATED: 18, Sep 2015, 13:37 pm IST

Peshawar: 29, including 13 terrorists, killed in attack on Pakistan air base

Peshawar: A group of Taliban fighters targeted a Pakistan Air Force base on the outskirts of Peshawar city on Friday and killed 16 people before security forces gunned down 13 of the attackers, a military spokesperson said.

The terrorists entered the base in Badaber, a suburb of Peshawar, from two points early in the morning. While one group of terrorists was contained in a small area near the base’s guard room, another group went to a mosque and killed 16 people who were praying.

Pakistani media reports said most of the people killed inside the mosque were security personnel.

Personnel from a quick response force and army commandoes engaged the terrorists and gunned down 13 of them, chief military spokesman Maj Gen Asim Bajwa posted on Twitter.

Bajwa also posted several photos of the dead attackers, who were clad in black and armed with assault rifles.

Authorities said 22 injured people were taken to nearby hospitals. Bajwa said 10 soldiers, including two officers, were among the wounded.

Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan spokesman Muhammad Khurasani claimed responsibility for the attack in an email sent to journalists, media reports said.

Pakistan Army chief Gen Raheel Sharif travelled to Peshawar to assess the situation and meet troops participating in the clearance operation.

Militant groups, including the Taliban, have repeatedly targeted military facilities in the restive city of Peshawar and its surrounding areas over the past few years, killing dozens of security personnel. Attacks have also been carried out within the high-security Peshawar cantonment.

The base at Badaber was used by the US Air Force and the CIA for surveillance missions against the erstwhile Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War. The US had a permanent presence at the base from 1959 to 1970.

CIA pilot Gary Powers had taken off for his ill-fated surveillance mission, during which he was shot down by a Soviet missile battery, from Badaber on May 1, 1960.