A Pakistani police official says the number of paramilitary
soldiers and police killed in a cross-border attack by hundreds of
militants from Afghanistan has risen to 26.
Police official Nizam
Khan says Pakistani forces responded to Saturday's attack on three
security checkpoints in Chitral district, killing nine of the militants.
Khan says the militants seized a local village after they destroyed the checkpoints.
The fighting is still going on.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
PESHAWAR,
Pakistan (AP) — Hundreds of militants crossed the Afghan border
Saturday and attacked three security checkpoints in northwestern
Pakistan, killing 12 people including 10 paramilitary soldiers and two
policemen, officials said.
It was the latest of a series of
attacks that Pakistani officials say have been launched from an area of
eastern Afghanistan where the U.S. has largely pulled out its troops.
The raids have increased tension between Pakistan, Afghanistan and the
U.S.
The militants seized control of a local village after
attacking the security checkpoints in Chitral district, said local
police official Nizam Khan. Pakistani forces responded to the raid and
killed nine insurgents, he said.
But fighting was still ongoing
Saturday afternoon, and Pakistani troops requested helicopter gunships
to drive the militants back across the border, said Maj. Ghulam Rasool,
a member of the paramilitary forces.
The militants chanted "God
is great!" and "Long live jihad!" as they fought, said Capt. Abdul
Ghani, another member of the paramilitary forces.
Chitral is
located across the border from the Afghan districts of Nuristan and
Kunar, both of which house significant numbers of Afghan and Pakistani
Taliban fighters. The U.S. largely pulled out of the area about a year
ago but has recently added additional troops.
Pakistan complained
earlier this summer that militants coming from Nuristan and Kunar
killed at least 55 members of the security forces and tribal police in
a spate of attacks, and demanded that U.S. and Afghan forces do more to
stem the flow of fighters.
Kabul and Washington have long accused
Pakistan of not doing enough to stop militants from crossing into
Afghanistan to stage attacks. Afghanistan has also complained that
Pakistan fired more than 750 rockets into eastern Afghanistan earlier
this summer that killed at least 40 people.
The Pakistan army
denied it intentionally fired rockets into Afghanistan, but
acknowledged that several rounds fired at militants conducting
cross-border attacks may have landed over the border.
Also
Saturday, gunmen kidnapped and killed a retired army colonel in
northwestern Pakistan, and a police officer died trying to rescue him,
said police official Umer Hayat.
The gunmen seized Col. Shakeel
Ahmad as he was on his way home from morning prayers in the garrison
city of Kohat, said Hayat. Police intercepted the gunmen's car at a
checkpoint and engaged them in a firefight in which one police officer
was killed and two others wounded. The gunmen escaped and later shot
dead Ahmad and abandoned his body alongside a road.
No group has claimed responsibility, but the Pakistani Taliban have often targeted soldiers and police in the country. AP
