A group of Taliban fighters on Tuesday gunned down two soldiers in South Waziristan Agency, security officials said. The militants used machine guns to attack a roadside military checkpost near the agency’s Ladha town before escaping into the mountains. “The soldiers died on the spot. Another soldier was injured and was taken to a nearby hospital,” a security official in Wana, the agency’s main town, told AFP.
Another official in Peshawar confirmed the incident and casualties. The military carried out a sweeping offensive in 2009 in South Waziristan targeting the country’s main Taliban faction, but many of their commanders and foot soldiers are believed to have fled to neighbouring North Waziristan.