Militants have attacked a Pakistan naval airbase killing at least one paramilitary soldier while security forces killed all five of the assailants in retaliatory fire, officials say.
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Monday's attack on the Turbat base in southwest Pakistan was the second assault by ethnic Baloch militants on a military facility in the past week.
"We escaped a huge loss," a statement from Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's office said.
A Pakistan Navy spokesman said all five attackers were killed after they tried to break into the base.
One paramilitary soldier was also killed, according to a military statement.
The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), the most prominent of several separatist groups in Balochistan, claimed responsibility for the assault in a statement.
The BLA has previously been involved in attacks on Pakistani and Chinese interests in the region and elsewhere.
China has invested heavily in the mineral-rich southwest province of Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, including developing the port of Gwadar, despite a decades-long separatist insurgency.
The naval base is significant to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor that also encompasses roads and energy projects and is part of Chinese President Xi Jinping's Belt and Road Initiative.
Pakistani security forces said last week they repulsed a gun and bomb attack by the BLA militants on a complex outside Gwadar, in which two soldiers and all eight militants were killed.
Australian Associated Press
