Militants have attacked an air force base in north-west Pakistan filled with F-16 jets and other aircraft, sparking a heavy battle with security forces that left parts of the complex in flames, officials said.
The insurgents infiltrated the base under the cover of darkness and began battling security forces at around 2am, according to the Pakistani air force. Others fired rocket-propelled grenades at the base from outside, damaging one aircraft.
Six militants wearing explosives and two security personnel were killed in the fighting. The head of the base, Air Commodore Muhammad Azam, was wounded. Security forces searched the area afterwards for any militants who may have escaped, the air force said.
Special forces soldiers who joined the group trying to retake the base found the body of a suicide bomber inside, said the Pakistani air force, adding that the bomber was strapped with explosives.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack but suspicion will likely fall on the Pakistani Taliban whom the government is trying to rout from hideouts mostly along the border with Afghanistan. The insurgency against the government has killed tens of thousands of people, though direct raids on military bases have been uncommon.
Half a dozen Taliban militants attacked a major naval base in the southern port city of Karachi in May 2011, killing at least 10 people and destroying two US-supplied surveillance aircraft. It took Pakistani commandos 18 hours to retake the Mehran naval station and two of the attackers managed to escape. There was speculation they had inside information or assistance.
In 2009 militants dressed in fatigues attacked army headquarters in the city of Rawalpindi, just outside Islamabad, and took 30 people hostage. Pakistani commandos finally raided the compound 22 hours later. Three captives and four militants were among those killed.
There have been at least three attacks in the vicinity of the Kamra air force base since 2007, but all of them occurred outside the installation. In 2009 a suicide bomber on a bicycle blew himself up on a road leading to the base, killing seven people. A year earlier three rockets were fired at an area near the base but no one was hurt. In 2007 a suicide car bomber wounded five children on an air force bus carrying them to school near the base.
The US defence secretary, Leon Panetta, said this week that Pakistan has told American military officials it plans to launch an operation against the Pakistani Taliban in North Waziristan in the "near future".