Twelve soldiers killed in Taliban ambush in northwest Pakistan

At least 12 soldiers were killed in an ambush by the Pakistani Taliban in northwest Pakistan on September 13, according to local government and security officials, quoted by foreign media. Four others were wounded in the attack.

The incident occurred around 4:00 a.m. in South Waziristan district, when a military convoy was passing through a town and “armed men opened fire from both sides with heavy weapons,” a local government official said. A security officer in the area confirmed the death toll and added that the attackers seized weapons from the convoy.

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack in a social media post. While separate from the Afghan Taliban, the TTP is closely linked with its Afghan counterpart.

This attack is among the deadliest in months in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where the TTP previously controlled large swaths of territory until a military operation in 2014 pushed them back. Militancy has surged in border regions with Afghanistan since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in Kabul in 2021.

Islamabad has accused neighbouring Afghanistan of failing to expel militants who use Afghan territory to launch attacks in Pakistan, a claim denied by authorities in Kabul.

In recent weeks, residents across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa districts reported graffiti bearing the TTP’s name on buildings, raising fears of a resurgence similar to the group’s dominance during the peak of the US-led “War on Terror.” A senior local official told journalists that both the number of TTP fighters and the frequency of attacks have been increasing.

Since January 1, nearly 460 people, mostly security personnel, have been killed in attacks carried out by armed groups in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and southern Balochistan. 

Last year marked Pakistan’s deadliest year in nearly a decade, with over 1,600 deaths, nearly half of them soldiers and police, according to the Islamabad-based Centre for Research and Security Studies.

By Tamilla Hasanova