KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – At least 12 Pakistani soldiers were killed and four others wounded in an attack claimed by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in South Waziristan on Saturday, officials confirmed.
The attack took place around 4:00 a.m. when gunmen armed with heavy weapons opened fire on a military convoy in the mountainous district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, according to AFP. Pakistani security officials confirmed the death toll and said the assailants seized weapons before fleeing.
The TTP, also known as the Pakistani Taliban, a UN-designated terrorist group that Pakistan says is sheltered in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, has claimed responsibility for the attack.
It was one of the deadliest attacks in months in the restive border province, where the TTP once held sway before being pushed back by a major military operation in 2014.
Violence has surged in Pakistan’s border region with Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021. According to AFP, nearly 460 people, mostly security personnel, have been killed in militant attacks this year in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the southwestern province of Balochistan.
Last year was the country’s deadliest in almost a decade, with more than 1,600 people killed — nearly half of them soldiers and police — according to the Islamabad-based Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS).
Islamabad accuses the Taliban of sheltering and supporting the TTP and its affiliates to carry out cross-border attacks. The Taliban rejects the allegation, saying no militant groups are based in Afghanistan and that Pakistan’s internal security is not its responsibility.
