Pakistani troops kill 10 militants responsible for attack on military base that left 8 soldiers dead
The Hindu
Pakistan military kills 10 militants in 18-hour operation; 8 soldiers die in suicide attack; surge in militant attacks.
All 10 militants who rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into a Pakistani military facility were killed in an 18-hour operation, officials said July 16, adding that militants in a separate attack on a health facility killed five civilians.
In its statement, the Pakistani military said eight soldiers were killed when a suicide bomber early on Monday rammed his explosive-laden vehicle into the outer wall of an army housing complex in Bannu, a city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
A splinter group of Pakistani Taliban, led by a militant commander Gul Bahadur, claimed the attack, which has been denounced by the country's Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and other officials.
The military said the suicide attack collapsed a portion of the wall and damaged nearby infrastructure, resulting in the killing of the eight soldiers.
Responding to the attack, security forces killed all ten attackers, it said. The military said a “timely and effective response by the security forces prevented major catastrophe.”
Pakistan has consistently raised its concerns with the Taliban government in Afghanistan, the military adds, “asking them to deny persistent use of Afghan soil by the terrorists and to take effective action against such elements.”
The military said Pakistan's armed forces “will keep defending the motherland and its people against this menace of terrorism and will take all necessary measures as deemed appropriate against these threats emanating from Afghanistan."