The Pakistani army said on Tuesday that a suicide bomber drove a vehicle packed with explosives into an army post, killing eight soldiers. A local official said dozens were wounded.
The attack in the western city of Bannu came weeks after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced a new major operation to root out militant groups following a surge in attacks.
The army said early Monday that 10 militants had attempted to enter military facilities and areas housing military personnel and their families but were thwarted.
They then rammed an “explosive-laden vehicle” into the perimeter wall, causing it to crash through and destroy an adjacent building, killing eight soldiers and paramilitary members.
The military said all 10 militants were killed in the fighting that followed, but did not say how many were wounded.
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But a local government official told AFP that five militants wearing suicide vests “entered residential areas”, wounding 141 people.
They fought heavy gun and rocket-propelled battles for 26 hours, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The area was sealed off on Monday and the militant group Jaish-e-Khursan Muhammad claimed responsibility for the attack, saying “serious damage was caused.”
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Bannu is in the border province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Afghanistan.
The army spokesman said Jaish-e-Khursan Muhammad’s parent organisation “operates from Afghanistan and has in the past used Afghan territory to orchestrate terrorist acts inside Pakistan”.
Since the Taliban returned to power three years ago, there has been a dramatic increase in militant attacks in Pakistan’s border areas.
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Casualties last year reached a six-year high, with more than 1,500 civilians, security forces and militants killed, according to the Islamabad-based Center for Research and Security Studies.
In June, Prime Minister Sharif announced a major counterinsurgency campaign titled “Resolve for Stability” to quell the increasing attacks.
Islamabad has accused the new government in Kabul of failing to root out militants hiding inside Afghan territory as it prepares to launch an attack on Pakistan.
The Taliban government has insisted it will not allow foreign militant groups to operate from Afghanistan, but relations between Islamabad and Kabul have deteriorated over the issue.
RA-KF-JTS/MCA
