Eight Pakistan soldiers killed in suicide attack
At least eight soldiers and 10 suspected militants were killed in a violent clash involving a suicide bombing in northwest Pakistan, the military reported on Tuesday.
The confrontation occurred early Monday morning when a group of heavily-armed militants attacked the cantonment area in the Bannu district of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The attackers included a suicide bomber who drove an explosive-laden vehicle into the perimeter wall of the cantonment.
'The attempt to breach the cantonment was effectively thwarted by security forces, compelling the terrorists to ram the vehicle into the perimeter wall,' the military said in a statement.
The explosion caused a section of the wall to collapse and damaged nearby infrastructure, resulting in the deaths of eight soldiers.
During the ensuing operation, security forces engaged and killed all 10 suspected militants, the statement added.
The military accused the Hafiz Gul Bahadur group of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) of orchestrating the attack, noting that this group operates from Afghanistan and has previously used Afghan territory to launch terrorist activities inside Pakistan.
Islamabad has consistently accused the 'Afghanistan-based' TTP militants of conducting attacks within Pakistan, though Kabul denies these allegations.
.png "Advertisement")
