KAMRA, Pakistan (AP) — A team of nine Taliban militants attacked a Pakistani air force base with suspected links to the country’s nuclear program before dawn today, killing a security official in a heavy battle that ended with the insurgents dead and parts of the base in flames, officials said.

The attack on the base in Kamra, located only about 25 miles northwest of Islamabad, was a brazen reminder of the threat posed by the Pakistani Taliban despite numerous military offensives against their sanctuaries along the Afghan border.

The large air base hosts a variety of fighter jets, including F-16s, and contains a factory that makes aircraft and other weapons systems. Some experts suspect the base could be linked to Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal because of the weapons development there and the presence of jets that could be used to deploy the bombs. The army has denied the base has any links, but the nuclear program’s secret nature makes independent evaluation difficult.

The safety of the country’s nuclear weapons has been a major concern for the United States. Western experts say Pakistan has about 100 nuclear weapons and is in the midst of a rapid expansion of its arsenal.

“The great danger we’ve always feared is that, you know, if terrorism is not controlled in their country, that those nuclear weapons could fall into the wrong hands,” U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told reporters at the Pentagon on Tuesday.

The militants, some of whom were wearing explosives strapped to their bodies, attacked the base at around 2 a.m. with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, according to the air force.

At least one of the rockets hit a hangar holding a number of aircraft, said air force spokesman Tariq Mahmood. The rocket pierced the hangar wall, and shrapnel from the explosion damaged one of the aircraft parked inside.

After the rocket barrage, the attackers scaled the wall surrounding the air base, said Mahmood.

Guards inside the base then opened fire on the militants, and an intense firefight ensued, he said. In the initial exchange of gunfire, one Pakistani soldier was killed.

Security forces, backed by a team of elite commandos, fought the militants for two hours and were finally able to retake the base, the air force said.

Nine militants and one security personnel were killed in the fighting. The head of the base, Air Commodore Muhammad Azam, was wounded in the shoulder, said Mahmood.

Eight of the militants were killed inside the territory of the base while the body of another was found outside the base perimeter, where he blew himself up, the air force said in a statement.

Security forces searching the area after the attack found a “few IEDs,” which they either removed or destroyed, the spokesman said.

The base is formally known as Air Force Base Minhas. It was named after a pilot, Rashid Minhas, lauded as a hero in Pakistan for foiling attempts by his instructor to defect with an air force plane to archrival India in 1971. To stop the escape, Minhas disabled the controls of the plane the two were flying, and died in the resulting crash.

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