At least five soldiers and six Taliban militants were killed in gun battles in the country's north-western tribal region, the military said Tuesday, as troops advanced into the last stronghold of rebels. A group of gunmen attacked an army outpost near Shawal valley in Waziristan region, killing three soldiers, a military official said.
Two soldiers and six militants were killed overnight in another clash in the same valley stretched over several dozen kilometres through South and North Waziristan districts near the Afghan border. The military launched an offensive in the region against rebels linked to al Qaeda from June last year, but withheld the decision to send troops into Shawal because of the difficult terrain.
An attempt to send troops earlier this year was halted because of strong resistance from the militants. This time, however, the soldiers were moving in swiftly despite the resistance, the military official said, adding that they had gained ground. The military has claimed to have killed nearly 3,000 rebels in more than a year of the campaign. While there has reportedly been a significant decline in violence since then, the claims cannot be independently verified as the region is off-limit to journalists. A spokesman for the Taliban said they would defend Shawal at any cost. "We will not let the army enter Shawal under any conditions," Azam Tariq told several newspapers.
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