Pakistan foils BLA terror attack on naval air station in Balochistan

Pakistani security forces have thwarted a late-night attack on a naval air station in southwestern Balochistan, officials said.

Four to six heavily-armed gunmen tried to barge into PNS Siddiq in Turbat district at 10 pm local time, but security forces "neutralised all attackers," a senior military official told Anadolu Agency on Monday.

No loss to any "sensitive equipment or casualties of our own troops" has so far been reported, he said, adding a clearance operation will begin shortly.

There was no official statement from the military.

The Balochistan Liberation Army [or BLA], which is designated as a terrorist group by Pakistan, Britain, and the United States, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement to local media.

The attack took place days after eight gunmen stormed a government complex in the strategic port city of Gwadar last week. All eight attackers and two army troops were killed in an hours-long gun battle.

The terror group has long been involved in attacks on security forces in Pakistan's mineral-rich Balochistan, the country's largest but poorest province.

Security forces have long been facing a low-intensity insurgency by Baloch terror and other militant groups.

The province is also a key route of the $64-billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project which aims to connect China's strategically important northwestern region to Balochistan's Gwadar Port through a network of roads, railways and pipelines for cargo, oil an d gas transportation.