PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan’s military says security forces have raided two militant hideouts in regions near the border with Afghanistan, triggering intense shootouts that left six insurgents dead during the Eid holidays.
A military statement said the two raids were conducted early Friday in Tank and North Waziristan districts on credible intelligence information about intrusion and hiding of militants in the areas near the border with Afghanistan.
Security forces also seized weapons and ammunition from the hideout and were carrying out a clearance operation of the area, the military said late Friday.
A State Department report says the department failed to do enough contingency planning before the collapse of the U.S.-backed government in Afghanistan.
Pakistani security forces say they have killed an Islamic State group commander and two other militants during a raid on a militant hideout near the border with Afghanistan.
The United Nations says it has documented a significant level of civilian casualties from attacks in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover in August 2021.
The supreme leader of the Taliban has released a message claiming that his government has taken the necessary steps for the betterment of women’s life in Afghanistan, where women are banned from public life and work and girls’ education is severely curtailed.
The military gave no further details about the identity or affiliation of the six dead, but largely militants belong to factions of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, which is generally known as Pakistani Taliban.
TTP is a separate group but allied with the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in the neighboring country in August 2021 as U.S. and NATO troops were in the final stages of their pullout. The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan has emboldened the Pakistani Taliban, which has stepped up attacks on police and troops in recent months.
Footprints of the Islamic State group are also found in the region. Earlier in the week, security force killed an IS commander identified as Shafi Ullah in an intelligence-based operation in the Bajur district, another area in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan. He was among thee militants killed on Wednesday.
Pakistan’s military has carried out major operations in recent years in the tribal belt along the Afghan border, which served as a safe haven for local and foreign militants for decades. However, militants still carry out attacks in the region.
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