Fighters belonging to the Pakistani Taliban have attacked an air force station near Peshawar, resulting in a firefight with security forces and the deaths of at least 16 people, according to the Pakistan army.

ISPR, the Pakistan military’s media wing, said at least three security officers died and 13 fighters were killed while 25 people, including 16 security officers, were wounded in Friday morning’s assault.

Ambulances took around 20 wounded military personnel to hospital, Bilal Ahmed, a rescue official, told Reuters news agency.

The Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban, claimed responsibility for the raid at the Badaber Air Force base, located on the edge of Peshawar, capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Al Jazeera’s Nicole Johnston, reporting from Peshawar, said Friday’s assault was the first major attack conducted by the Pakistani Taliban since the Peshawar school massacre in December.

“Having said that, there have been warnings of a major attack to come … At the stage we don’t know if the 16 killed in the attack on the mosque are civilians or military personnel,” she said.

The assault came as the Pakistasn army was carrying out a major operation against local and foreign fighters in the North Waziristan tribal region bordering Afghanistan.

The attackers stormed the guard room of the base, but the assault was quickly repulsed, Major-General Asim Saleem Bajwa, an army spokesman, said earlier.

The airbase – established in the 1960s – was not functional and it was mostly being used as a residential place for the employees and officers of the air force, reports said.

‘Explosive-laden jackets’

A military official at the airbase, who asked not to be identified, said the attackers opened fire on security guards as they tried to fight their way into the facility.

“All the terrorists were wearing explosives-laden jackets and were armed with hand-propelled grenades, mortars, AK-47 rifles,” the official told Reuters.

“The Quick Response Force of the Pakistan army immediately responded and killed six terrorists before they could enter.”

Mohamad Khurasani, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack.

In a statement to the media, he said the fighters gave safe exit to women and children after attacking the base.

He said the group targeted 50 security forces, but the claim could not be confirmed by government or military sources.

The number of attacks in Pakistan has fallen around 70 percent this year, due to a combination of a military offensive against Taliban bases along the Afghan border and government initiatives to tackle violence.

That follows a massacre at a military-run school last December that killed around 150 people, almost all of them children.