Pakistani jets killed 16 suspected militants in bombing raids near the Afghan border yesterday, and police arrested dozens of people, security officials said, the day after Taliban militants killed 29 people in an attack on an air base.

The attack on the base on Friday was the deadliest ever militant attack on a Pakistani military installation and is likely to undermine already rocky ties with Afghanistan.

Hours after the attack, Pakistan’s military spokesman pointedly noted that communications intercepts showed the Pakistani Taliban gunmen were being directed by handlers in Afghanistan.

Yesterday’s air force raids targeted militant bases in the Tirah Valley, which straddles the Afghan border and is a main smuggling route between the two countries, two Pakistani security officials said.

It was the deadliest ever militant attack on a Pakistani military installation

“All those killed in the bombing were Pakistani militants,” said one security official in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

On Friday, 13 gunmen stormed the Badaber air base, about 10 km south of Peshawar in an attack a Pakistani Taliban spokesman said was retaliation for bombing raids on their bases.

Police said they picked up around 50 residents living near the base on suspicion of helping the militants organise the attack.

Shafqat Malik, head of the Peshawar bomb squad, said the attackers carried enough firepower to occupy the base, but that some of their weapons had malfunctioned.