More than 200 Pakistani Taliban attacked a security post in the northwestern region of Orakzai yesterday, triggering a clash in which at least 28 militants and two soldiers were killed, officials said.
The violence came as two senior US security officials were in Pakistan to urge the government to step up pressure on militant groups following a botched May 1 car-bombing in New York’s Time Square, a White House official said.
Pakistani forces have increased their attacks in the Orakzai and Khyber regions of the northwest in recent weeks after largely clearing Taliban strongholds in other areas.
The militants emerged out of forested mountains to attack the checkpoint in the Dobbari area soon after dawn, said a Pakistani government official in the region, Nauman Khan.
“About 200 militants with rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons attacked the checkpost, prompting a fierce response from the security forces,” he said.
The security forces used tanks to repel the attackers, killing at least 28 militants and wounding 21, he said.
There was no independent confirmation of the casualty toll and Taliban spokesmen were not immediately available for comment.
Nuclear-armed Pakistan joined the US-led global campaign against militancy in the days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the US.
The militants intensified their attacks on the Pakistani state in the middle of 2007, after security forces cleared a radical mosque complex in the capital, where militants had holed up with numerous weapons and refused to surrender.
A year ago, the security forces began a series of sustained offensives and managed to clear many fighters from the Swat valley, northwest of Islamabad, and the South Waziristan and Bajaur regions on the Afghan border.
In recent weeks, the army has turned its attention to the Orakzai and Khyber regions, where many fighters are believed to have taken refuge from the earlier offensives.
But despite losing ground, the militants have shown the ability to bounce back and have carried out a wave of bomb attacks, killing hundreds of people, mainly in the northwest.
Pakistani action against militants along the Afghan border is seen as crucial for US efforts to bring stability to Afghanistan.
The US wants Pakistan to go after Afghan Taliban factions, who launch cross-border attacks on Western forces in Afghanistan from sanctuaries on the Pakistani side of the border.
The US has increased pressure on Pakistan to send troops into North Waziristan, an Afghan Taliban stronghold on the Afghan border, following a failed bombing in New York claimed by the Pakistani Taliban, who also operate in the region.
US National Security Adviser Jim Jones and CIA Director Leon Panetta were visiting Pakistan to help make sure “all efforts are undertaken” to keep pressure on the militants, John Brennan, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, said in Washington on Tuesday.
The two Americans were expected to meet Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and other political and military leaders, officials said.
Addressing a Washington conference, Brennan acknowledged differences with Islamabad about what next steps to take.
However, he said US President Barack Obama was prepared to do “what we need to do to protect the American public,” suggesting Washington has not ruled out taking unilateral action in Pakistan if necessary.
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