KALAYA: Eighteen suspected militants and six soldiers were killed in a gunbattle in Orakzai Agency on Saturday.

According to official sources, 11militants and three soldiers suffered injuries while one explosives-laden vehicle was destroyed.

An attack by militants on a checkpost in Shireen Dara area of Lower Orakzai before dawn set off the gunbattle.

The wounded soldiers were taken in a helicopter from Kalaya, the agency’s headquarters, to Kohat.

One soldier was killed in an attack on a checkpost in the area on Friday.

Levies man dies in Bajaur bomb attack

Anwarullah Khan adds from Khar: A Levies man died and another was injured in a bomb attack in Lovi Mamond Tehsil of Bajaur Agency on Saturday.

Officials said that Bajaur Levies personnel were on patrol when the bomb hit them in the Kamar Sar area.

Bajaur Agency’s assistant political agent Sohail Ahmad Khan told Dawn that it was a remote-controlled explosion.

Abdul Wahab, the Levies man, died on the spot while his wounded colleague, Abdul Wali Khan, was taken to the agency headquarters hospital in Khar in a critical condition.

The outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the attack. A TTP commander told reporters by phone that more attacks would be carried out on the Levies force.

The administration, with the help of Bajaur Levies, launched a crackdown against residents of the area and detained 34 people under the collective territorial responsibility clause of the Frontier Crime Regulations.

AFP adds: Clashes between security forces and militants in tribal regions have increased over the past weeks.

In June the army began an offensive against militants in North Waziristan, after a bloody raid on Karachi Airport ended faltering peace talks between the government and the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan.

The army says it has killed more than 1,000 militants and lost 86 soldiers since the start of the operation.

Published in Dawn, November 2nd , 2014