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Taliban launch cross-border raid into Pakistan, kill one

Other News Materials 4 July 2011 14:51 (UTC +04:00)
Dozens of suspected Taliban militants from Afghanistan on Monday crossed into Pakistan's tribal region to attack a border post, killing one soldier and injuring one more, security officials said.
Taliban launch cross-border raid into Pakistan, kill one

Dozens of suspected Taliban militants from Afghanistan on Monday crossed into Pakistan's tribal region to attack a border post, killing one soldier and injuring one more, security officials said, DPA reported.

The raid took place in early morning hours in Bajaur, one of the seven districts of Pakistan's militancy-plagued tribal region.

A local intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity said that around four dozen attackers entered from the Afghan province of Kunnar and attacked a border post in Kit Kot area of Bajaur district.

"According to the initial information, one soldier from FC (Frontier Corps paramilitary force) was martyred and one soldier was wounded," said the official.

It was latest in the series of cross-border attacks by Taliban in recent months, a new trend in the conflict across Afghan-Pakistani border, which has historically seen the Taliban more often launch raids against forces in Afghanistan from bases in Pakistan.

General Ather Abbas, Pakistan Army spokesman, said last week that five major Taliban attacks from Afghanistan had killed 55 soldiers and wounded more than 80 this year.

The cross-border assaults have strained relations between the neighbouring countries, with each side's officials blaming the other.

A statement from the office of President Hamid Karzai last week accused Pakistan of firing more than 400 rockets into Afghanistan, killing several civilians.

Pakistani security officials have indicated that the militants conducting cross-frontier raids are mainly Taliban expelled by security operations in Pakistan's tribal districts and the north-western province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

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