Seven killed in suicide attack near suspected nuclear base
A suicide bomber struck a checkpoint near a military complex reportedly linked to Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme today, killing seven people as the army pressed ahead with a major anti-Taliban offensive in the northwest.
The attack took place near the sprawling aeronautical complex in Kamra, around 30 miles from the capital, Islamabad, and is sure to raise renewed concerns about the safety of Pakistan’s nuclear programme.
The Kamra site is often mentioned by foreign military experts and researchers as a likely place to keep planes that can carry nuclear warheads.
The army, which does not reveal where its nuclear weapons are stored, has denied that the facility is tied to the programme.
The attacker was apparently riding a bicycle and detonated his explosives at a checkpoint on a road leading to the complex, police officer Akbar Abbas said, blaming the Taliban.
The seven dead included two security troops, while 13 people were wounded.
“The attacker wanted to go inside. He exploded himself when officials wanted to search his body,” Attock police chief Fakhar Sultan Raja said.
The attack is the latest in a wave of violence sweeping Pakistan as its army pushes forth with its offensive against Islamist militants in the northwestern tribal region of South Waziristan.
More than 170 people have died in bombings and raids on Western and security-related targets in the past three weeks.
The complex at Kamra or its workers have been targeted at least once before. In December 2007, a suicide car bomber struck near a bus carrying children of Pakistan Air Force employees, wounding five of them.
Pakistan has long insisted its nuclear programme is safe and secure, and has sought to protect it from from attack by militants by storing the warheads, detonators and missiles separately in facilities patrolled by elite troops.
