Military convoy, caught in an ambush in Pakistan by Talibans: At least 12 soldiers were killed, the attackers fled with the armament
Military Pakistani at the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Credit: Jack Hill / News Licensing / Profimedia
At least twelve soldiers were killed on Saturday in an ambush organized by Pakistani Taliban, who are back in the northwest of the country, on the border with Afghanistan, where violence has increased, AFP reports.
“Around 04:00 in the morning, the attackers posted by both sides of the road fired heavy weapons on a convoy of military and paramilitaries, 12 members of the security forces being killed,” a local administration manager told AFP.
A security officer stationed in the area confirmed the balance sheet and added that the attackers captured the convoy weapons.
One of the most serious attacks in recent time
Tehrik-E-Taliban (TTP), the movement of Pakistani Taliban, claimed a “very sophisticated attack” that allowed “the capture of ten machine guns and a drone.”
This is one of the bloodiest attacks in the last months in the province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, where TTP, the main rebel Islamist group, established in the tribal mountain areas between Pakistan and Afghanistan, returns to the methods of the 2000s.
The attack came after Thursday, according to other local officials, seven paramilitaries were killed in the same province during shifts with TTP fighters, a movement formed in the battles in Afghanistan and claiming the same ideology as the Afghan Taliban.
Mutual accusations between Pakistan and Afghanistan
For Islamabad, the same Afghan Taliban, returned to power at Kabul in the summer of 2021, are those who favor this return of insurgents. Pakistan accuses the neighboring country of not resolving groups that use its territory as a support base to attack it.
Afghanistan vehemently denies any responsibility and Cuza Pakistan that helps the “terrorist” groups, especially the regional branch of the Islamic State group (them).
For several weeks, residents of different districts in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa say that “TTP” inscriptions have appeared.
Pakistani Taliban are more and more active
They say they are afraid not to return to the years of extremist violence that ended the western Pakistan after this country became a key ally of the United States in the “Terrorism War” following the September 11, 2001 attacks.
At the same time, a high local official recently told AFP that “the number of TTP fighters and attacks has increased.”
From January 1, according to an AFP balance sheet, almost 460 people, mostly members of the security forces, have been killed in the violence led by armed groups, in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, as well as in the neighboring province of Baluchistan.
Pakistan met in 2024 the bloodiest year of the last decade, with over 1,600 dead following these violence.
