WANA/TANK, Jan 18: Army troops recaptured the Siplatoi fort in South Waziristan on Friday, a day after paramilitary soldiers had abandoned it, sources said.

Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement that over 80 militants were killed in two separate clashes in the Mahsud area on Friday.

In the first incident, militants attacked a convoy on the Jandola-Wana road in Chagmalai at 12.30pm. Troops returned fire and between 20 and 30 assailants were killed. Four security personnel were injured and two vehicles were damaged.

Also on Friday, security forces attacked a large number of militants who had gathered to attack the Laddah fort and killed up to 60 of them, the ISPR said.

However, the figures could not be verified from independent sources.

Security officials said that army and paramilitary personnel had moved into the area in three helicopters and took over the abandoned Siplatoi fort on the Wana-Jandola road.

An official said that militants launched a rocket attack after security forces had regained control of the fort. One army platoon and a militia contingent were also airlifted to the fort in helicopters.

Over three dozen militiamen had abandoned the fort after receiving reports that militants were assembling to launch an attack.

Sources said that 22 paramilitary soldiers, who had escaped from the Siplatoi fort on Wednesday night, were still missing. Militants claimed that some 60 soldiers had surrendered and all of them were freed on the directives of the Taliban Shura.

On Tuesday night, militants had captured a fort in Sararogha after killing 22 security personnel and taking several others hostage. The sources said that nothing was known about the bodies of the soldiers who had been killed or the fate of the missing soldiers.

Meanwhile, reinforcements were sent to the Chagmalai fort in the Mahsud area on Friday. Troops fired artillery shells from their bases in Wana, Jandola and Manzai on Thursday night.

Security forces pounded with artillery suspected militant locations in the Mahsud area and local people had to move out to safer places.

Local people said that heavy shelling rocked the area and several houses were hit. Two people, including a girl, were killed in Makin and Spinkai Raghzai areas.

Militants fired six rockets on a military base in the Shakai area, inhabited by the Ahmadzai Wazir tribe. No casualty was reported.

Meanwhile, paramilitary soldiers and police backed by army troops conducted a search operation in Gulshen Abad and Gara Boda areas of Tank on Friday and arrested seven suspects.

Earlier, law-enforcement personnel opened fire in the Gara Boda area causing injury to a woman who was taken to a hospital in the city.