(MENAFN- Arab Times) Taleban ambushes and bombings killed at least seven Pakistani soldiers in the northwest as the military made a new push into the militants' last major stronghold near the border with Afghanistan, intelligence officers said Sunday. Pakistan began a major offensive in North Waziristan last summer to drive out Pakistani Taleban and other extremist Islamist militants who launch attacks on government and civilian targets.
The army is meeting fierce resistance as it moves further into the lower-lying areas of the Shawal Valley, the Taleban's last stronghold, military officials said.
Pakistan's army chief, Gen Raheel Sharif, visited troops on Friday and said the initial phase around the surrounding peaks of the Shawal Valley was successful and it was now time to begin a final push into the lower areas. "We will not stop unless we achieve our end objective of a terror-free Pakistan," he said. Militants ambushed a military convoy on Saturday in the valley's Pir Ghr area, killing two soldiers and wounding three others, intelligence officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media.
The Pakistani Taleban claimed responsibility for the attack, with spokesman Azam Tariq saying five soldiers were killed.
The intelligence officials added that troops moving from both the North and South Waziristan sides into the Shawal Valley were encountering tough resistance from militants. The heavily forested ravines in the area are dotted with Taleban hideouts and the area is a key smuggling route into neighbouring Afghanistan.
Two other attacks in the northwest killed five more soldiers outside the Shawal Valley. The first, a remote-controlled bomb attack on army vehicles in North Waziristan, killed three and injured six. A second bomb attack on a military vehicle in South Waziristan killed two others, the military officials said. The Pakistani Taleban had controlled almost all of the northwestern region of North Waziristan before troops launched their offensive last year.
Many militants have fled to other parts of Pakistan, and some into Afghanistan, complicating the US-backed Kabul government's fight against its own Taleban insurgency. Pakistan has been battling a homegrown Islamist insurgency for over a decade following the late 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan. The Pakistan army began a major campaign against Taleban and other militant strongholds in the North Waziristan tribal area in June last year and authorities have now vowed to intensify operations both in the border regions and across the country. The military says more than 2,700 militants have been killed since the launch of the major offensive.
Meanwhile, Pakistani intelligence officials say a roadside bomb attack has killed three paramilitary soldiers and injured six others in the North Waziristan tribal region near the Afghan border. Two intelligence officials say the bomb planted near the village of Raghzai detonated as a military convoy drove past on Sunday. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.
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