25 Taliban killed in fierce battle with Pakistani Security forces

BAJAUR—Pakistani Security forces have killed 25 Taliban militants and injured 35 in a bloody clash between the forces and the militants while the forces have taken hold of Taliban strong hold Loisam. Clashes erupted when paramilitary troops reoccupied a checkpost they had abandoned several months earlier in the Bajaur tribal zone bordering Afghanistan, a haven for Taliban and al-Qaeda militants, they said.

“At least 25 militants have died in the clashes in the Loisam area of Bajaur over the past 24 hours,” a senior security official said on Thursday. Two soldiers were killed and two wounded in a remote-controlled bomb blast as a convoy moved towards Loisam and three other soldiers were injured in the clashes, officials said. A Taliban spokesman, Maulvi Omar, said that 15 soldiers had been killed in the clashes but added that he did not have details of militant casualties. Officials said clashes erupted on Wednesday when paramilitary soldiers entered the checkpost, some 15km west of the region’s main town Khar. Taliban militants resisted the move and attacked the post with rockets and automatic weapons, the officials said, adding that troops retaliated and helicopters pounded their suspected hideouts.

Hundreds of Taliban militants attacked a checkpost in a Pakistani tribal area bordering Afghanistan, sparking fierce clashes in which 10 troops and 25 rebels were killed, officials said Thursday. Helicopter gunships pounded insurgent positions during the fighting, which erupted when paramilitary forces reoccupied a security post in the Bajaur tribal zone which they had abandoned several months earlier.

Bajaur is a known haven for Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants, against whom Washington has urged Pakistan’s fledgling government to crack down. “The fighting is intense and ongoing,” a top security official told. “Up to 25 militants were killed and at least 10 Frontier Corps soldiers have also been martyred. Some are critically wounded.”

Officials said that a contingent of troops moved into the Loisam area, around 15 kilometres (nine miles) from Khar, the main town in Bajaur, late Wednesday to control militant movements between several districts. An officer from the paramilitary Frontier Corps said 300-400 militants, backed by local sympathisers, participated in the attack. They were mostly armed with AK-47 assault rifles, rocket launchers and grenades, he said.

“The firing continued the whole night, this morning reinforcements were sent. One vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device on its way to the post and the convoy was then attacked by Taliban militants,” the official said. One soldier was killed in the bomb blast and the rest were killed in the fighting, they said. The Frontier Corps official would only confirm the deaths of five soldiers but said that many were critically wounded and had been taken to hospital outside his area. A Taliban spokesman, Maulvi Omar, said militants killed 18 soldiers while only two Taliban fighters died and claimed that fighters from the hardline movement had surrounded the post. “The fighting will continue until the troops are withdrawn from Loisam. We will respond with full might,” Omar said in a telephone call to local reporters.

—Agencies

Source: dailymailnews.com

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