Islamabad - Pakistani forces repulsed two overnight raids by Taliban fighters on security posts in the country's lawless tribal region near the Afghan border, killing two dozen militants, security officials said Tuesday. More than 100 Islamist insurgents attacked an army post in the Mamasar area of South Waziristan district with rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles Monday, triggering hours-long clashes that left one soldier dead and three injured.
"Our troops successfully repulsed the attack and killed at least 10 Taliban while their two vehicles were also destroyed," said an intelligence official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "The Taliban took the bodies of their comrades when they retreated."
After the attack, helicopter gunships pounded militant hideouts in the same region Monday night and early Tuesday, killing another six rebels and injuring around a dozen more, the official said.
A Taliban spokesman claimed his fighters had "inflicted heavy casualties" on the military. "We must have killed 45 of their men," Azam Tariq said.
Neither of the claims could be independently verified because of restrictions placed on journalists covering the conflict area.
In neighbouring North Waziristan, eight militants died in clashes with government forces in the Razmak area, another intelligence official who requested anonymity said.
Pakistan has deployed thousands of troops in the tribal region to bar Taliban and al-Qaeda insurgents from planning and executing cross-border raids on international forces in Afghanistan.
But a major offensive against the rebels in South Waziristan is pending, primarily because of ongoing military operations in Swat and three adjoining mountainous districts in neighbouring North-West Frontier Province.
After killing more than 2,000 militants in the four-month onslaught, troops are now eliminating pockets of resistance and carrying out search operations to locate the Taliban leadership, which has gone into hiding.
Pakistani security forces said Tuesday that they have captured another important Taliban leader in Swat.
Naseem Shah, alias Abu Faraj, a close aide of Swat's Taliban chief, Maulana Fazlullah, was arrested after a clash with government troops Monday.
"He is critically wounded and is being treated at the hospital," local military spokesman Colonel Akhtar Abbas said.
Describing the capture as "a great achievement," the spokesman said Shah trained suicide attackers and orchestrated several bombings against the security forces.
The militant leader was also wanted by the police for a 37,000-dollar bank heist that took place in Swat's remote Chuprial area in December 2004.
Shah is the fourth high-profile Taliban figure to be arrested by troops in recent days. The Swat Taliban's chief spokesman, Muslim Khan, is among those who have been taken into custody.
