Updated on
Summary Two soldiers and five militants were killed in gunbattles in Khyber along the Afghan border.
The fighting erupted when Pakistans paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) launched a search operation in the Malik din Khel area of Khyber.The strategically important Khyber district lies between Peshawar and Afghanistan and is the main route for NATO supplies in Afghanistan.Mutahir Zeb, the top administrative official of Khyber, said militants from Lashkar-e-Islam (army of Islam) were involved in the attack.Two FC personnel were killed and three were wounded. Five militants were also killed in the clash, Zeb told AFP by telephone.Lashkar-e-Islam is the most active militant group in Khyber and led by feared warlord Mangal Bagh. It has loose ideological ties to the Taliban, but operates independently.Nearly 4,700 people have been killed across Pakistan in attacks blamed on Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants based in the northwestern tribal belt since government troops stormed a radical mosque in Islamabad in 2007.Around 3,000 Pakistani soldiers have also lost their lives in attacks since 2001, when the country joined the war on terror.
