One of Pakistan's largest air bases attacked, nine militants, one security personnel killed

Nine terrorists, in military uniform, wearing suicide bomb jackets and armed with RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades) and automatic weapons struck the airbase at about 2 am.

 Their target was the airbase hangars which house about 30 aircraft, including F16 fighters and Saab-2000 surveillance aircraft. The Pakistan Aeronautical Complex that assembles JF-17 combat jets and drones is part of the Kamra airbase. (See Pictures)

 Pakistan's Air Force has said that security personnel immediately resisted the terrorists' approach to the hangars. There was exchange of fire for about two hours.

 Base commander Air Commodore Muhammad Azam, who was leading operations, has a bullet injury. His condition is described as safe and stable. One security personnel died.

The Pakistan Air Force has denied that the Kamra airbase houses nuclear weapons, reports Reuters. "No air base is a nuclear air base in Pakistan," the news agency has quoted a Pakistan Air Force spokesman as saying.

 There is no word yet on whether any militant escaped. After combing the complex, security personnel have declared that all the eight militants who entered the base have been killed.

 There are reports that Pakistan's intelligence had information about the possibility of such an attack and that might have helped limit damage. A Pakistani newspaper, The Express Tribune, had cited intelligence reports to say militants could attack Air Force facilities in Punjab before Eid-ul-Fitr.

 The attack came just two days after Pakistan Army chief Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani emphasised the country's commitment to the war on terrorism. Gen Kayani said the war on terrorism was Pakistan's "own war and a just war too".

 No group has as yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

There have been such terrorist attacks before, including one on the Army's General Headquarters in Rawalpindi in 2009 and on a key naval airbase in Karachi in 2011 - at least 10 military personnel were killed and 20 were wounded in this 16-hour assault.