Militants launched an attack on a security post in northwest Pakistan late Thursday, killing at least six security personnel, according to a military statement released Friday. The assault took place in the restive tribal district of South Waziristan.
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Islamist militant group claimed responsibility for the attack. Pakistan’s military said it successfully repelled an attempt by the attackers to storm the premises, killing five assailants in the process.
“Troops fought bravely, foiling the attempts of intrusion,” the military’s information wing, Inter-Services Public Relations, stated.
In a separate incident in the neighboring North Waziristan district, Pakistani forces reported killing seven militants attempting to enter the country from Afghanistan. A large quantity of ammunition and explosives was recovered in the operation.
These attacks highlight the resurgence of militant activity in Pakistan’s northwest, as well as an intensifying ethnic separatist insurgency in the south. Pakistan has accused the Taliban administration in Afghanistan of providing safe havens to the TTP near the border, a claim the Taliban denies.
The TTP, while separate from the Afghan Taliban, pledges loyalty to the group now ruling Afghanistan. Pakistan’s UN representative, Munir Akram, recently warned the Security Council that the TTP could become the “spearhead of global terrorist goals,” potentially aligning with groups like al Qaeda.
Reuters
