Militants attack Pak Air Force training base

Islamabad: Heavily-armed militants attacked a Pakistan Air Force training base in Punjab province early Saturday, damaging three grounded aircraft, the army said, a day after 15 soldiers were killed in two separate terror strikes. In a statement, the Pakistan Army said that the Mianwali Training Air Base of Pakistan Air Force was attacked by terrorists but soldiers foiled it by killing three of the attackers and cornering three others.

“However, during the attack, some damage to three already grounded aircraft and a fuel bowser also occurred,” the statement said.

The attack comes hours after a series of terror strikes killed at least 15 soldiers in the restive Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces. Fourteen Pakistani soldiers were killed on Friday when militants ambushed two vehicles carrying security forces from Pasni to the Ormara area of Gwadar district in the restive south-western Balochistan province.

Friday’s toll is the heaviest suffered by the military in Balochistan province this year where separatists and militants have stepped up their attacks since a ceasefire deal between the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Pakistan government ended in November 2022.

Hours before the Gwadar attack, a series of bomb blasts targeting convoys of police and security forces killed six people, including a soldier, and wounded 24 others in the

Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.