Pakistani Taliban kill six soldiers in checkpoint attack

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Dec 9 : Pakistani Taliban militants stormed a security checkpoint in Pakistan's northwestern border area with Afghanistan, killing six soldiers and wounding four others, a government official said Tuesday.

Pakistan has faced a surge in militant attacks along its border regions since the Taliban authorities retook control in Kabul in 2021.

It accuses Afghanistan of harbouring the insurgents, a claim the Taliban government denies.

Late Monday, more than a dozen armed men attacked the checkpoint, leading to a heavy exchange of fire in Kurram, a tribal district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

"Six security personnel were martyred and four were injured, while two militants were also killed in the fighting," the government official posted in Kurram, who was not authorised to speak to the media, told AFP on the condition of anonymity.

The Pakistani Taliban group, or Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), has long been active in the region, and claimed responsibility for the attack.

Pakistan accuses the Taliban authorities in Afghanistan of sheltering TTP militants and allowing them to launch cross-border attacks from there -- a charge Kabul denies.

The border between the two countries has been closed since the clashes in October, though Pakistan said last week it would allow UN aid supplies to pass to Afghanistan soon.

The attack comes days after an exchange of gunfire and shelling between Afghan and Pakistani forces at a major border crossing that killed four civilians and one soldier, according to Afghanistan.

Each side accused the other of starting the fighting.  (AFP)