News - Middle East: A number of militants have briefly stormed an air base in central Pakistan, damaging aircraft, a day after gunmen killed more than a dozen soldiers in the country’s restive southwest.

On Saturday morning, at least nine militants attacked the Pakistan Air Force Training Airbase Mianwali, in the central-eastern province of Punjab, damaging three “non-operational” aircraft, the Pakistani army said in a statement.
It added that security forces killed all militants, three of them before entering the base while the rest had been cornered before the clearance operation began.
“No damage has been done to any of the Pakistan Air Force’s functional operational assets, while only some damage was done to three already phased-out non-operational aircraft during the attack,” it said.
In an earlier statement, the military had said that “a fuel bowser” had also been damaged in the attack.
“Due to the swift and effective response by the troops, (the attack) has been foiled and thwarted, ensuring the safety and security of personnel and assets,” the statement further noted.
The Tehreek-e-Jihad Pakistan (TJP), a newly-emerged militant group that is an affiliate of the home-grown Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) movement, has claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement to the media.
The little-known TJP has so far carried out a series of high-profile attacks in Pakistan, including killing 12 soldiers at a Pakistani military base in the southwestern province of Balochistan in July.