PESHAWAR // A Taliban attack on a Pakistani military base on the outskirts of the north-west city of Peshawar led to the deaths of 42 people on Friday, including 16 worshippers who were gunned down when the militants stormed a mosque in the compound.
The attack triggered a lengthy firefight at the base after which the Pakistani forces said they had killed 13 of the assailants. It was unclear how many militants were involved in the assault.
“At least 29 people have been martyred – 23 from the air force, three from the army and three civilians,” said Maj Gen Asim Bajwa, the chief military spokesman.
The attack was a major blow for Pakistan’s military, which stepped up operations against the militants after a Taliban attack at a Peshawar school in December in which 150 people, mostly children, died.
In Friday’s assault, the attackers stormed the guard room of the Badaber base, air force officials said. The base was established in the 1960s as an air force facility but has mostly been used as housing for air force employees and officers from Peshawar.
Gen Bajwa said the attack was quickly repulsed, but details about how the Taliban managed to enter the mosque, which is inside the compound walls, and kill 16 people, were sketchy.
Gen Bajwa said the militants entered the base from different directions in a two-pronged assault – apparently one push targeted the mosque – but that security forces responded quickly.
It was also unclear if any of the attackers escaped.
According to Gen Bajwa and a statement released by the air force, along with those killed, 10 soldiers were wounded in the firefight with militants, along with an unspecified number of civilians. The dead and most of the wounded were taken to a military hospital in the area. Reporters were denied access.
Five wounded security personnel and two civilians were brought to the main government hospital in Peshawar.
One of the wounded security officials, Mohammad Rizwan, said he was coming out of the mosque when he was hit by a bullet.
“I fell down and I saw some of the attackers, but I don’t know what happened later, I fell unconscious,” he said.
Shortly after the attack, a suspected US drone strike hit a home in the South Waziristan tribal region, south of Peshawar, killing at least three militants and wounding five.
Earlier, in Tweets posted on social media, Gen Bajwa said the country’s powerful army chief, Gen Raheel Sharif, rushed to Peshawar and met the security forces taking part in the clearing-up operation. He said Gen Sharif would visit a military hospital where doctors were treating soldiers wounded in the attack.
A rescue officer said his crew moved at least 20 wounded to hospitals in the area.
A spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, Mohamad Khurasani, claimed responsibility for the attack. He said 14 Taliban fighters were involved in the assault. They offered “safe passage” to women and children after attacking the base, Mr Khurasani said. He also said that the Taliban had “targeted” 50 security forces, without explaining what that meant.
Pakistani television footage showed army helicopters hovering near the base, as police and troops surrounded the area.
Local police officer Shahid Khan Bangash said a large explosion was heard as the militants first tried to storm the base. “We are hearing that the attackers were armed with guns and rockets,” he said. Mr Bangash said the attackers threw grenades at the guard room but were unable to enter the main area of the base.
Later in the morning, he said the firing had stopped and a search operation for the militants was under way.
Air force chief Sohail Aman had briefed prime minister Nawaz Sharif on the attack, the air force said.
The attack came a day after Pakistan reported the arrest of a militant figure behind a recent failed attempt to target an air force facility in Kamra, also in the north-west of the country. Counter-terrorism officer Junaid Khan, in the southern port city of Karachi, where the raid took place, identified the suspect as Umar Hayat and said he was being questioned.
On Thursday, the Pakistani police in Karachi also reported the arrest of another prominent suspect, Syed Sheaba Ahmad, a former air force pilot who allegedly helped to finance Al Qaeda’s newly formed South Asian affiliate.
The Pakistan air force has played an important role in the fight against militants since June last year, when the army launched a much-awaited operation in North Waziristan, a restive tribal area along the Afghanistan border. Peshawar is the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders the tribal area. The air force frequently targets militant hideouts in the tribal area.
The army said it had killed more than 3,000 militants so far in the North Waziristan offensive. The region was once considered to be the headquarters of the Pakistani Taliban, who have been targeting security forces and public places in an effort to topple the elected government.
* Associated Press, Agence France-Presse
