According to the official version of the Pakistani authorities, only one security guard was killed and one aircraft was damaged by a rocket-propelled grenade. A PAF spokesman has been quoted by the Pakistani media as saying that the terrorists were wearing uniform, but he did not specify whether they were wearing the uniform of the Air Force or the Army. Air Commodore Muhammad Azam, the commanding officer of the PAF Base, was reported to have been seriously injured. PAF officials denied media reports that there were nuclear weapons stored inside the base.
The significance of the Minhas base as a Taliban target arises from two factors. Firstly, it is the base in which the entire PAF holdings of aircraft fitted with Airborne Early Warning Systems are located. In 2007, the PAF had ordered five Swedish-made SAAB 2000 aircraft, four of them fitted with Saab-Ericsson ERIEYE Airborne Early Warning system. The first of these fitted with Erieye was delivered to the PAF on April 3, 2008, and the second in April last year. The PAF has also ordered from Sweden six ground receiving stations.
In addition, the PAF has reportedly ordered four Shaanxi ZDK-03 'Karakoram Eagle' airborne early warning and control (AEW & C) aircraft from China, the first of which was delivered in November 2010. Thus, the PAF presently has two SAAB 2000 and one Chinese ZDK-03 planes fitted with airborne early warning systems.
According to reliable Pakistani sources, the main objective of the TTP raiders into the Minhas base was to locate and destroy these three planes fitted with airborne early warning systems. These sources say that the raiders managed to damage at least one of them.
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Pakistan army soldiers patrol near the Minhas base in the town of Kamra, Pakistan
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