DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan — Pakistani officials say eight of its soldiers have been killed in two separate attacks in the country’s northwestern tribal region bordering Afghanistan.
Six troops died after their vehicles struck two roadside bombs in the Shaktoi area of the South Waziristan district on October 14, district police officer Shaukat Ali and intelligence sources told RFE/RL.
Ali said a captain was among those killed in the first blast. As another military vehicle rushed to the scene, a second explosion killed five more soldiers.
The attacks were claimed by Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), also known as the Pakistani Taliban.
The Pakistani military said one soldier was killed and another wounded in another attack on a border security post in the Bajaur tribal district.
The military’s media wing tweeted that “terrorists” had fired from the Afghan side of the frontier.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for that attack.
Bajaur and South Waziristan are both located in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.
Pakistan’s border areas served as a militant base until recent years when Pakistan said its operations there had cleared the area of the Taliban and other militant groups.
[#Pakistan News Update]
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