Global Security Newswire

A suicide bomber killed at least seven people today in an attack on a security station outside a Pakistani facility believed to be connected to the nation's nuclear weapons program, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Oct. 13).

A police official said that the bomber used a bicycle to approach the checkpoint at the Kamra air base, a facility considered by experts to be used for storing nuclear-capable bombers. Islamabad has maintained that its nuclear work is in no danger from extremists and that the Kamra site has no ties to the program.

"The attacker wanted to go inside. He exploded himself when officials wanted to search his body," said Attock police chief Fakhar Sultan Raja.

Islamabad has not identified its nuclear-weapon storage sites, but the government is known to place warheads, detonators and delivery vehicles at separate highly secured locations.

Extremists had carried out one previous attack at the Kamra base as well as a strike at Pakistan's Sargodha air base -- a suspected nuclear missile storage site -- and multiple bombings at a Wah Cantonment facility believed to be involved in assembly of nuclear weapons, according to British analyst Shaun Gregory (see GSN, Aug. 11). The strikes did not appear specifically aimed at Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, he said.

Pakistan's nuclear weapons program is most vulnerable to radicalized insiders, according to some analysts. The nation is believed to possess between 70 and 90 nuclear warheads, said Hans Kristensen with the Federation of American Scientists (Asif Shahzad, Associated Press/Google News, Oct. 23).

An air force official today brushed off claims that the Kamra base has connections to Pakistan's nuclear weapons work, Reuters reported.

"It's nonsense. It's rubbish," the official said.

On Wednesday, Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani told Cabinet officials that Islamabad's nuclear program remains absolutely secure (Zeeshan Haider, Reuters, Oct. 23).