Five security forces personnel have been killed and four others injured in two separate militant attacks in Orakzai and Bajaur, officials said Saturday. The first attack took place in the Orakzai tribal district when militants attacked a security post. "Four security personnel were martyred and three sustained injuries in attack on their post at Sherin Dara in lower Orakzai," a security official told AFP, adding that 20 militants were killed as Pakistani forces responded.
The second attack occurred in the Qamar Sar area of Bajaur tribal district, on the border with Afghanistan, when a vehicle carrying security forces was hit by an IED blast. "One person belonging to the security forces embraced martyrdom and another sustained injuries when their vehicle was blown up with an IED device," local administration official Abdul Haseeb Khan told AFP. Search operations were launched in both areas to hunt down suspected militants, officials said.
Pakistan has been battling militant groups in its semi-autonomous tribal belt since 2004, after its army entered the region to search for al Qaeda fighters who had fled across the border following the US-led invasion of Afghanistan. In June the army began a long-awaited offensive against militant hideouts in the North Waziristan tribal area, after a bloody raid on Karachi Airport ended faltering peace talks between the government and the Taliban. Pakistan's army says it has killed more than 1,000 militants and lost 86 soldiers since the start of the operation. The number and identity of those killed is difficult to verify as there is little regular media access to the conflict zone.
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