Six people, including one serviceman, were killed as a result of an attack by militants on the Turbat Navy air base in the Balochistan province of southwestern Pakistan. A representative of the Pakistani Navy said that five attackers were killed when they tried to enter the military base. The Baloch Liberation Army, which has previously carried out attacks on various facilities in Pakistan and China, claimed responsibility for the attack.
This attack was the second attempt by ethnic Baloch militants to attack military facilities in the past week. The Turbat Air Base is critical to the security of the $46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. This corridor, which includes highways, railways and energy projects, is part of China's "One Belt One Road" infrastructure initiative and connects China's Xinjiang with Pakistan's port of Gwadar on the Indian Ocean coast.
Despite a separatist insurgency in the region, China has invested heavily in the mineral-rich province bordering Afghanistan and Iran. Recently, however, the port and industrial complexes in the Gwadar area have become more frequent targets for militant attacks. Extremists consider Chinese facilities and Chinese citizens to be allies of the Pakistani government, which is why they have become targets of attack.
