Pakistani Taliban strike again: 12 soldiers killed in dawn ambush
At least twelve Pakistani soldiers were killed on Saturday in an ambush carried out by fighters of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in the country’s northwestern region, near the Afghan border.
Local administrative officials and security sources told Agence France-Presse that “around 4:00 a.m., attackers positioned on both sides of the road opened heavy fire on a military and border guards’ convoy, killing twelve members of the security forces.”
A senior security official in the area confirmed the death toll, adding that the assailants seized the weapons transported by the convoy.
The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for what they described as a “highly sophisticated attack,” which allowed them to capture “ten machine guns and a drone.”
On September 4, two Pakistani border guards were killed in an exchange of fire with Taliban Pakistan fighters in the western part of the country near the Afghan frontier. At the time, border guards were patrolling northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province after locals had reported graffiti bearing the TTP acronym, a senior Swat official told AFP.
Islamabad has long accused Kabul of failing to expel insurgents who use Afghan territory to launch cross-border attacks into Pakistan — allegations that Afghanistan consistently denies.
Since January 1, several hundred people — most of them members of the security forces — have been killed in violent attacks by anti-state armed groups in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces, according to an AFP tally.
The year 2024 is shaping up to be the deadliest in nearly a decade in Pakistan, with more than 1,600 fatalities recorded — nearly half of them soldiers and police officers — according to Islamabad’s Center for Research and Security Studies.
