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10 militants killed in NW Pakistan

Xinhua, September 18, 2011

• At least ten militants were killed when they launched an attack on a check post jointly guarded by local militiamen and security forces in Pakistan's northwest tribal area of Khyber Agency on Sunday, reported local Urdu TV channel Geo.

  Four militiamen and one soldier were also killed in the attack, said the report.

  According to the local media reports, heavily armed militants on Sunday morning attacked a check post jointly manned by volunteers of a tribal peace committee and security forces at the Bara area of Khyber Agency bordering Afghanistan.

  The militants used heavy weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades, to target the check post and killed four members of the pro-government peace committee and one soldier right on the scene and several other tribesmen were also injured in the attack and they have been shifted to hospital in Peshawar.

  One local report said that hundreds of tribesmen arrived at the attack site and launched a counter attack and killed 10 militants.

  The two sides exchanged fire for quite a long time and some of the militants fled after strong resistance from the tribal volunteers.

  More security men also rushed to the area and launched a search operation to apprehend the militants, but no capture was reported.

  Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan and another militant group Lashkar-e- Islam are fighting security forces and pro-government tribesmen in Khyber agency.

  Militant groups have also in the past carried out deadly attacks on tribesmen in Khyber agency, a main route for supply of NATO troops in the neighboring Afghanistan. NATO supply trucks and oil tankers are routinely under attacks in Khyber agency.

  Tribesmen have formed peace committees in the tribal regions and other militants-infested areas in Pakistan's northwest to defend themselves from Taliban attacks and support the security forces.

  Taliban militants routinely launch attacks on members of these committees and in a latest attack on a funeral on Thursday a 15- year-old Taliban suicide bomber killed over 40 people and injured some 70 others in Lower Dir district in northwest Pakistan.

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