Officials said that about 100 militants launched a pre-dawn attack on the Spinki Tangi checkpost, along Afghanistan’s border province of Nangarhar. Troops retaliated and killed 16 militants. Three soldiers were injured.

Sources said that three soldiers who went missing after the fighting had returned to their base.

Militants contradicted the official claim. Their spokesman, Ikramullah Mohmand, told journalists by phone that eight soldiers had been killed and five others wounded in the clash.

He claimed that only one of their men was killed. He said the checkpost was still under the control of militants as ferocious fighting raged on.
Local military spokesman Major Fazal Khan said that two soldiers from the Mohmand Rifles had been killed and five wounded, adding that 16 Taliban fighters had been killed.

Syed Ahmad Jan, a senior administrator in Mohmand, said: ‘Our security forces returned fire after coming under attack, and when the insurgents escaped they left the bodies of 13 of their comrades.’