Seven Pakistani soldiers killed in Taliban clashes

Dozens of heavily armed Taliban militants attacked a Pakistani military post yesterday, sparking clashes that killed seven soldiers and wounded another 10, the military said.
Helicopter gunships were mobilised when the fighting broke out in the same Jogi area as clashes that killed six soldiers on January 25 in the district of Kurram, part of Pakistan’s lawless tribal belt along the Afghan border.
At the time, security forces claimed to have taken control of Jogi, which is strategically located near Orakzai district, birthplace of Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud.
A senior military official told AFP that “more than 300 Taliban attacked” the checkpost at around midnight (1900 GMT Monday) in central Kurram, which is on the Taliban route into North Waziristan and onto the Afghan border.
Pakistani security forces retaliated and killed around 25 militants, but seven soldiers were also killed and 10 others wounded, the official said.
Independent confirmation of death tolls is largely impossible in the tribal belt, a Taliban and Al-Qaeda stronghold barred to journalists and aid workers.
“Heavy fighting continued until this morning,” the military official said.
Local administration official Sher Bahadur confirmed the military deaths but put the number of wounded paramilitary at 12.
Pakistan, whose relationship with the United States deteriorated in 2011 over the raid that killed Osama bin Laden and air strikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, says more than 3,000 troops have died fighting militants.