Soldiers killed as militants storm army base in northern Pakistan

Rugged border regions near Afghanistan have seen years of fighting between the army and insurgent groups

An attack on a military base by suspected militants in northern Pakistan killed several soldiers.

Nine soldiers were killed at the base Islamist militants stormed into armed with guns, hand grenades and rockets, army and security officials said.

All five militants who stormed the base in early hours were killed in retaliatory fire, Reuters cited the army as saying.

Three other soldiers died in a separate exchange of fire with heavily armed “terrorists” in Sui district, the army said.

Late at night, the army announced completion of an operation to clear the area district Zhob of southern Balochistan province.

The attack was claimed by Tehreek-e-Jihad Pakistan, a new organisation in the area with a growing number of militant groups opposed to the government operating in the area.

Attacks in northern Pakistan, particularly the rugged governorate of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, have risen in recent months after a ceasefire between the government and the Taliban expired in November.

Analysts say the Pakistani Taliban has gained new weaponry captured or purchased from the former Afghan army when it collapsed in 2021, amid a nationwide Taliban offensive.

Both branches of the organisation share the same ideology and have co-operated in the past, with the Pakistani branch providing shelter to Afghan Taliban during the latter’s 20-year war against a US-led coalition.

Multiple Pakistani army operations have failed to dislodge the militants from the mountainous region, but anger has risen about the growing threat following a January suicide bombing at a mosque in Peshawar that killed 100 people.

In June, the Pakistani army killed a member of ISIS following another operation that killed four ISIS fighters who had arrived from Afghanistan. The army has also been battling the local branch of the Taliban, Tehreek-e-Taliban-Pakistan since 2007 and Baloch separatists.

Wednesday’s attack occurred in northern Balochistan’s Zhob district, a mountainous part of the country.

Three security officials said the militants fought for several hours after hurling hand grenades inside a military mess.

“Initial attempt of terrorists to sneak into the facility was checked by soldiers on duty,” the army said, and added that “in ensuing heavy exchange of fire, the terrorists have been contained into a small area at the boundary.”

The mineral-rich southern province that borders Afghanistan and Iran has faced a decades-old ethnic separatist insurgency.

Islamabad says militants have rebased their operations to Afghanistan, which Kabul denies.