WANA, Aug 16: Ten militants and two soldiers were killed in clashes in South Waziristan’s Chagmalai area on Thursday. Citing intelligence reports official sources said that six soldiers had been killed and 10 other soldiers were injured in the firefight.

However, according to Inter Services Public Relations only two soldiers had been killed. The number of militants killed could not confirmed from independent sources.

Sources said that militants had attacked a military convoy heading from the Frontier Region Jandola to Wana, the headquarters of the South Waziristan Agency. Security forces responded with artillery fire from their base in Jandola and also used helicopter gunships.

Troops pounded suspected locations of militants in the area and heavy shelling continued for hours. The roads between Wana and Jandola and Wana and Makeen remained closed to traffic.

Alamgir Bhittani adds from Tank: The Bhittani tribe has warned Mahsud tribesmen at a jirga that it will raise a Lashkar against it if eight paramilitary soldiers and eight other personnel kidnapped last week along were not freed immediately.

The eight soldiers belong to the Bhittani tribe.

The jirga held here on Thursday which was attended by elders of Bhittani and Mahsud tribes, political agent for South Waziristan Agency Hussainzada, a parliamentarian and senior officials.

The jirga was convened to secure the release of paramilitary personnel kidnapped in South Waziristan on August 9. One of the captives was killed on Tuesday.

Maulana Muzafar Shah, a representative of the Bhittani tribe, told the jirga that if the Mahsud tribe did not find the eight soldiers belonging to their clan they would use force to free them, the sources said.