At least 12 Pakistani soldiers were killed and four others injured in a brutal ambush by the Pakistani Taliban in northwest Pakistan early Saturday, local officials confirmed to AFP.
The attack highlights a worrying resurgence of militancy in Pakistan’s border regions with Afghanistan, which have seen increasing unrest since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in Kabul in 2021.
According to a local government official, the military convoy was traveling through a town in South Waziristan district around 4:00 a.m. when “armed men opened fire from both sides with heavy weapons.” A security officer in the area confirmed the death toll and said the attackers had also seized weapons from the convoy.
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a militant group closely linked to, but distinct from, the Afghan Taliban, claimed responsibility for the assault in a message circulated on social media.
This marks one of the deadliest attacks in months in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, a region where the TTP once controlled significant territory before being pushed back by a military operation that began in 2014.
Pakistan’s government has repeatedly accused neighboring Afghanistan of harboring militants who launch cross-border attacks. Kabul denies the allegations.
Recent weeks have seen residents across several districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa report graffiti bearing the TTP’s name on walls and buildings, stoking fears of a return to the group’s former reign during the height of the U.S.-led “War on Terror.” A senior local government official told AFP that both the number of TTP fighters and the frequency of attacks in the region have risen.
Since the start of this year, nearly 460 people—mostly members of Pakistan’s security forces—have been killed in attacks by armed groups targeting the state in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, according to AFP’s tally.
Last year, Pakistan experienced its deadliest year in nearly a decade, with more than 1,600 fatalities, nearly half of them soldiers and police officers, the Islamabad-based Center for Research and Security Studies reported.
