WANA, Aug 10: The political administration of South Waziristan sent on Friday a jirga to an area of the Mehsud tribe to locate 15 kidnapped personnel of the Frontier Corps, officials and witnesses said.

The jirga was formed after authorities failed to trace the 14 soldiers and a junior commissioned officer kidnapped in the Spinkai Raghzai area on Thursday. They said the unarmed personnel were in a private vehicle when they were intercepted by armed men near Mandana in the Spinkai Raghzai area and taken away at gunpoint.

Our Miramshah Correspondent adds: Skirmishes took place between security forces and pro-Taliban militants in the troubled North Waziristan Agency on Friday but no casualty was reported.

Sources said that during the pre-dawn clashes, helicopter gunships attacked suspected locations in the Boya area near Miramshah. During the bombing, some residential compounds were also damaged.

In another incident, security forces exchanged fire with militants near the Miramshah bazaar when an unidentified man opened fire on a soldier.