Pakistani troops kill 10 militants responsible for attack on military base that killed 8 soldiers

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (AP) — All 10 militants who drove a vehicle loaded with explosives into a Pakistani military facility were killed in an 18-hour operation, officials said Tuesday. In a separate attack on a health facility, militants killed five civilians.

The Pakistani military said in its statement that eight soldiers were killed when a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden vehicle into the outer wall of an army housing complex in Bannu, a city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, early Monday morning.

A splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban led by militant commander Gul Bahadur claimed responsibility for the attack, which was condemned by Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and other politicians.

The military said the suicide attack caused part of the wall to collapse and damage surrounding infrastructure, resulting in the deaths of the eight soldiers.

In response to the attack, security forces said they killed all ten attackers.

The military said a “timely and effective response by security forces prevented a major disaster.”

Pakistan has repeatedly expressed its concerns to the Taliban government in Afghanistan, the military added. “It called on them to deny the continued use of Afghan territories by terrorists and to take effective action against such elements.”

The military said the Pakistani armed forces would “continue to defend the homeland and its people against the threat of terrorism and take all necessary measures they deem appropriate against the threats emanating from Afghanistan.”

There was initially no comment from Kabul.

Pakistan has seen an increase in militant attacks in recent years, especially in the northwest, along the border with Afghanistan.

In another incident on Tuesday, five civilians, including two female health workers and two children, were killed when militants opened fire on a health facility in the northwestern district of Dera Ismail Khan, the military said in a statement.

A statement said troops stationed nearby responded to the attack and killed three of the attackers.

However, two soldiers were also reportedly martyred in the ensuing shooting.

The military said those responsible for killing innocent people would be “brought to justice.”

No one took responsibility for the attack on the health facility.

However, most of these previous attacks on civilians and security forces have been attributed to the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP. They are a separate group but also an ally of the Afghan Taliban. TTP has increased its attacks on security forces across the country since the Afghan Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021.

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Associated Press writer Munir Ahmed contributed to this story from Islamabad.