At least 2 soldiers, 5 militants killed in a clash in Pakistan

Asia-Pacific, News May 29, 2015 , by IRIA No Comments

At least two Pakistani soldiers and five suspected militants have been killed in a clash in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal region near the Afghan border.

The fighting erupted on Friday when paramilitary forces from the Frontier Corps (FC) ambushed a group of militants in the North Waziristan Agency (NWA)’s Ghulam Khan area, AFP reported.

“The troops ambushed the militants on an intelligence tip-off,” said a senior Afghan security official, adding, “Five militants were killed” in the operation. The official, who was speaking on condition of anonymity, also said two soldiers died in the clash.

Earlier this month, the FC paramilitary forces launched an operation in Awaran district in the southwestern province of Balochistan, in which a militant was killed and two troops were wounded.

North Waziristan, which is one of the country’s seven semi-autonomous tribal districts where militant groups have been hiding, has gone through a fresh wave of violence and militancy over the past few months.

The Pakistani army launched a major campaign against militant groups in the border region in June 2014. The move followed a deadly raid on Pakistan’s major airport in the south, the Jinnah International Airport in Karachi, on June 8. More than two dozen people died in the militant attack.