Four soldiers and a dozen Taliban militants were killed on Sunday in separate incidents in the violence-wracked country, according to officials. An anti-Taliban fighter also died in a day of clashes and bomb blasts in the country.
The first incident took place in Salarzai town, about 20 kilometres (12 miles) northeast of Khar, the main city in Bajaur tribal district along the Afghan border when a remote-controlled bomb hit a shop. The blast killed an anti-Taliban militiaman and wounded three others, an official said. Among the injured were two other anti-Taliban fighters and a passer-by, senior government official Faaz Mohammad told AFP "The bomb destroyed the shop and killed one anti-Taliban fighter," the official said.
The second incident took place when a landmine buried at a roadside hit a vehicle in Sui on Sunday, killing three soldiers, a security official said. "Troops were patrolling in the area. Three soldiers were killed and two were injured. It was a landmine blast," a spokesman for paramilitary Frontier Corps told AFP.
In Sunday's third incident, 12 Taliban militants and a soldier were killed in a clash in Landi Kotal town of Khyber tribal district on the Afghan border and nearest to Peshawar, security officials told AFP. A local Taliban commander was among the dead, they said.