by AFP
PESHAWAR/DERA ISMAIL KHAN: At least seven soldiers and 12 militants were killed in a clash on Sunday in Pakistan’s troubled tribal belt where the army is fighting a major offensive against Taliban insurgents.
The military made a new push into the militants’ last major stronghold near the border with Afghanistan, intelligence officers said Sunday.
Pakistan began a major offensive in North Waziristan last summer to drive out Pakistani Taliban and other extremist militants who launch attacks on government and civilian targets.
The army is meeting fierce resistance as it moves further into the lower-lying areas of the Shawal Valley, the Taliban’s last stronghold, military officials said.
Pakistan’s Army Chief Gen. Raheel Sharif visited troops on Friday and said the initial phase around the surrounding peaks of the Shawal Valley was successful and it was now time to begin a final push into the lower areas.
“We will not stop unless we achieve our end objective of a terror-free Pakistan,” he said.
Militants ambushed a military convoy on Saturday in the valley’s Pir Ghr area, killing two soldiers and wounding three others, intelligence officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media.
The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, with spokesman Azam Tariq saying five soldiers were killed.
The intelligence officials added that troops moving from both the North and South Waziristan sides into the Shawal Valley were encountering tough resistance from militants.
The heavily forested ravines in the area are dotted with Taliban hideouts and the area is a key smuggling route into neighboring Afghanistan.
Two other attacks in the northwest killed five more soldiers outside the Shawal Valley.
The first, a remote-controlled bomb attack on army vehicles in North Waziristan, killed three and injured six.
A second bomb attack on a military vehicle in South Waziristan killed two others, the military officials said.
The Pakistani Taliban had controlled almost all of the northwestern region of North Waziristan before troops launched their offensive last year.
Many militants have fled to other parts of Pakistan, and some into Afghanistan, complicating the US-backed Kabul government’s fight against its own Taliban insurgency.
Pakistan’s military said the incident took place in the Ghaziza area of Datta Khel town, some 20 km east of Miranshah, the main town in the North Waziristan tribal district which borders Afghanistan.
“Fleeing terrorists also left behind three of their dead bodies. Four soldiers also embraced Shahadat (martyrdom) in the exchange of fire,” it said in a statement.
A security official in the area confirmed the incident and casualties.
The conflict zone is remote and off-limits to journalists making it difficult to verify the army’s claims, including the number and identity of those killed.
Pakistan has been battling a homegrown Islamist insurgency for over a decade following the late 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan.
The Pakistan Army began a major campaign against Taliban and other militant strongholds in the North Waziristan tribal area in June last year and authorities have now vowed to intensify operations both in the border regions and across the country.
The military says more than 2,700 militants have been killed since the launch of the major offensive.
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