Home Latest News Seven Militants Killed in Shootout Near Afghan Border

Seven Militants Killed in Shootout Near Afghan Border

by AFP

File Photo. Asif Hassan—AFP

Military statement claims three other militants injured during clashes in North Waziristan

Security forces killed seven militants in a firefight after insurgents crossed the Afghan border into Pakistan’s restive tribal region, the military said on Tuesday.

Officials said the clashes erupted late Monday when militants attacked a Pakistani border post in North Waziristan tribal district.

“During [the] exchange of fire seven terrorists [were] killed while three [were] injured,” the military said in a statement.

Violence in Pakistan has declined dramatically in recent years following a series of military operations along the northwestern border with Afghanistan, but militant groups are still able to carry out deadly attacks.

The Pakistan Army launched a massive operation in 2014 to wipe out militant bases in North Waziristan and end the near decade-long insurgency that has cost thousands of lives. The operation intensified after the Taliban massacred more than 150 people, the majority of them children, at a school in Peshawar in December 2014.

In 2016, the Pakistan Army claimed to have cleared the last militant stronghold in the country’s northwest after a three-month long operation. But analysts have long warned that Pakistan is not tackling the root causes of extremism, and that militants retain the ability to carry out spectacular attacks.

A suicide blast in the southwestern province of Balochistan on July 13 killed at least 149 people during a campaign rally—one of Pakistan’s worst-ever terror attacks—underscoring continuing security challenges in the country following years of dramatic improvements.

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