3 soldiers, 3 militants killed in Pakistan gun battle
Islamabad, June 11 (EFE).- An overnight gun battle in the volatile northwest Pakistan has left at least three soldiers and three militants dead, the military said on Sunday.
The media wing of the Pakistan army said four militants were wounded in the shootout on Saturday night in Miran Shah of the tribal North Waziristan district bordering Afghanistan.
The military said soldiers raided a militant hideout and engaged them in a fierce exchange of fire, “resulting in killing three militants while four others were wounded.”
However, during the intense exchange of fire, three soldiers lost their lives, the statements said.
It further said that sanitization of the area was being carried out to eliminate any other militants hiding in the area.
“Armed forces of Pakistan are determined to eliminate the menace of terrorism,” the statement added.
North Waziristan district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province has been a stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban, a militant group also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP before a military offensive was launched there in 2014.
Although the army claimed the area has been cleared of militants, attacks on security forces check posts and shootouts increased after the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August 2021.
Militants in the northwest Pakistan and in southern Balochistan have intensified their activities recently.
The TTP is an umbrella organization of several tribal armed groups created in 2007 that seeks to impose an Islamic state in Pakistan and maintains its allegiance to the Afghan Taliban.
The TTP unilaterally ended a ceasefire agreement with the Pakistani government in November last year.
The government has announced a fresh military operation against the militants across the country. EFE
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