Six soldiers killed by gunmen in northwest Pakistan
International Desk
Gunmen attacked a Pakistani army base near the border with Afghanistan and killed six soldiers, the army reported on Saturday.
The soldiers exchanged "intense fire" with the gunmen at a military base in the Thall district of northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the army said, without identifying the attackers. It said the soldiers killed three of the gunmen. Jihadist and separatist groups regularly target the army and police along the mountainous border with Afghanistan.
In November, at least 20 soldiers were killed in separate incidents over less than 24 hours in the province.
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), also known as the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for one of these attacks, which killed eight soldiers and nine militants.
Hours later, the Hafiz Gul Bahadur armed group claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on a checkpoint in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that killed 12 soldiers.
The TTP also claimed an attack in late October that left ten police officers dead at a check post in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The TTP is separate from the Hafiz Gul Bahadur group, but both were active in upporting the Afghan Taliban in its war against the US-led NATO coalition since 2001.
The Afghan Taliban reclaimed power in Kabul in 2021, and Pakistan's border areas have seen a resurgence of violence since then.
