Pakistan: Nuclear Facilities Attacked Three Times by Terrorists, US Official Says

Pakistan’s nuclear facilities have been attacked three times by home-grown extremists over the past two years, a senior U.S. official has confirmed to FOX News.

Three separate facilities in Pakistan — each of which deals in some part with nuclear activity — have been targeted by extremists, the official said, while insisting that there is “no waning confidence regarding the safety of the Pakistani nuclear program.”

The official confirmed a report in West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center Sentinel describing an attack on a nuclear missile storage facility at Sargodha on Nov. 1, 2007, and a homicide bombing at the nuclear airbase at Kamra on Dec. 10, 2007.

The report also notes a much larger raid by the Pakistani Taliban on Aug. 20, 2008, when homicide bombers blew up several entry points to an armament complex at the country’s main nuclear facility, the Wah Cantonment Ordnance Complex.

A Pakistani official told FOX News the report was “out of context” but stopped well short of saying the attacks did not occur.

So, whatever this Pakistani official says, the terrorists have attacked repeatedly nuclear facilites. Unless Pakistani Govt doesn’t tackle extremism, this will cotinue happening. Till they succeed.

More here:

According to Gregory, Pakistani civilian nuclear weapons sites –those sites where Pakistan’s nuclear weapons are manufactured, assembled or taken for refurbishment –are typically less protected than military sites where nuclear weapons are stored, deployed and operated, a problem the Pakistan Army has now moved to address. The attacks at the Wah cantonment, he says, highlight the vulnerability of nuclear weapons infrastructure sites to at least three forms of terrorist assault: a) an attack to cause a fire at a nuclear weapons facility, which would create a radiological hazard; b) an attack to cause an explosion at a nuclear weapons facility involving a nuclear weapon or components, which would create a radiological hazard; or c) an attack with the objective of seizing control of nuclear weapons components or possibly a nuclear weapon.

Meanwhile, US has said the report is not very important (Huh!) and Pakistan has blamed India for the report’s release (of course, India is very interested in AQ blowing a Pak nuclear site or stealing nuclear material…).

technorati tags: Pakistan, terrorism, West_Point, Combating_Terrorism_Center_Sentinel, Pakistani_Taliban, Wah_Cantonment_Ordnance_Complex