7 Pakistani soldiers killed in ambush near Afghan border

According to a military statement released on Friday, a Pakistani military convoy in a former stronghold of the Pakistan Taliban, known by the acronym TTP, near the Afghan border was ambushed, triggering an intense shoot-out in which seven soldiers and four members of the armed group were killed.

The statement said the ambush took place on Thursday in the Isham area of North Waziristan, a district in the volatile northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

“Pakistan Army is determined to eliminate the menace of terrorism and such sacrifices of our brave soldiers further strengthen our resolve,” the statement added.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. The incident comes as Pakistan’s military announced on Thursday that 128 armed fighters have been killed in the region bordering Afghanistan since January.

The military acknowledged that nearly 100 soldiers have been killed in such attacks during the same period.

Paying tributes to the killed soldiers, Pakistan’s new Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif stated Islamabad would “continue fighting terrorism”.

North Waziristan – once dubbed the “heartland of militancy” – is one of the seven former semi-autonomous tribal regions in Pakistan where the army has conducted a series of operations since 2014 to eliminate the Pakistan Taliban.