Eight paramilitary troops were killed when heavily armed militants attacked a security checkpoint in northwestern Khyber Agency -- one of the seven semi-autonomous tribal areas in Pakistan -- on Friday, officials said, SIA reports with reference to AA.
The incident, latest in a string of attacks on security forces, is seen as expansion of the ongoing battles between the army and the Taliban, which earlier were focused mainly on lawless North Waziristan.
A senior military official told The Anadolu Agency, on condition of anonymity, that heavily armed militants loyal to Lashkar-e-Islam, a Taliban-affiliated group that has operated in the Khyber agency over the last decade, attacked a security check post and a patrolling convoy in Jamrud town in Kyber agency, which lies next to Peshawar, the capital of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhawa province. The ambush, the official said, led to a two-hour long battle between the two sides that resulted in the death of eight paramilitary troops and "many" terrorists.
The number of dead attackers could not be independently verified.
The attack, the official said, was seemed to be an attempt to divert the attention of security forces from an ongoing military operation in North Waziristan.
The Pakistan army launched a massive air and ground invasion of North Waziristan on June 15, hoping to root out the formidable Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, an umbrella organization of various insurgent groups in Pakistan. Around 470 suspected militants, according to the Pakistan Army, have been killed so far in air and ground strikes in the last month, while 39 soldiers have lost their lives in landmine blasts, and clashes during this period.
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