Taliban gunmen killed 29 people, including 16 praying in a mosque, when they stormed a Pakistani air force base yesterday, a military spokesman said, in the deadliest Taliban attack on a military installation in the country’s history.

The 13 gunmen were also killed in the attack on Badaber air base, close to the city of Peshawar. The assault shows the Taliban retain the capability to mount devastating attacks despite a military campaign and a government crackdown against them following the massacre of more than 150 people, mostly children, at a school last December.

Twenty-two of those killed in the attack were serving in the Pakistan air force, four were civilians and three were army soldiers responding to the attack, Major General Asim Bajwa said. Twenty-nine people were wounded.

“The terrorist group used two gates. They came close to the gate and disembarked from their cars and then they used rocket launchers and grenades and fired as they entered the gate,” said Bajwa, who said the attack has been masterminded in Afghanistan.

A reaction force arrived within 10 minutes and the attackers were contained close to the areas where they entered, he said. But they were still able to enter the mosque and killed 16 of those inside, he said.

Mohammad Ikram of the Pakistani Air Force, who was praying at the mosque at the time the attack began, said many were hit by gunfire in the attack.

“We were offering prayers when we first heard the gunshots and then, within no time, they entered the mosque where they began indiscriminately firing,” he said by telephone from a hospital bed where he was being treated for gunshot wounds.

“They killed and injured most of the worshippers. I fell on the ground. Then the gunmen went to other places in the base. After a long time, we were shifted to the hospital.”

Bajwa released pictures of some of the attackers’ bloodied bodies in the uniform of the paramilitary Frontier Constabulary, black traditional Pakistani clothes.

The Taliban released a video about the attack featuring Umar Mansoor, the same commander who claimed responsibility for the Peshawar school massacre.

“We proudly claim responsibility for the attack on Pakistani air base,” Taliban spokesman Muhammad Khorasani said. “This base is being used by fighter jets for bombing us.”