LADHA, Aug 29: Nine security personnel and six militants were killed while several others wounded in a clash between security forces and militants in South Waziristan on Wednesday.

Sources said that fierce fighting erupted when militants led by Sher Azam of Waliur Rehman group attacked an advancing party of security forces just after Tuesday midnight in Baba Ziarat locality of Ghat Badr, some 35km south of Ladha.

The security forces had advanced on Baba Ziarat, in Sarokai sub-division, on Tuesday and set up bunkers to stay at night.

Sources said the area was a stronghold of the Taliban where about 22 militant offices and training centres were located in Mantai Bard, Meshat, Borakai, Tangi, Bednai, Darra Haibat Khel and mountainous areas of Makeen.

The militants had also taken control of Shaktoi, Bobar, Smal, FR Bittini, Sra Ghar, Abakhel, and Haroonabad and Garnai in south.

The militants had established a command and control system in the area and were moving about freely. They used NCP vehicles, pick-ups, horses as means of communication.

They also used walkie-talkie and sometimes Afghan cellular phones.

Reacting to movements by the forces, the militants attacked them with heavy weapons. The fighting continued till 10am on Wednesday.

The security forces also targeted militant positions with artillery from Wana and Tiarzai military camps.

According to ISPR and intelligence sources, nine security personnel were killed and eight others injured while six militants were killed and 10 others wounded in the cash.

But Taliban spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan claimed in a telephone call to media that 12 soldiers were killed and scores of others wounded.

He said the bodies of seven soldiers, who had been beheaded, were in possession of the Taliban.

He claimed only one militant was killed and three were injured in the clash.

About two months ago, the Taliban killed eight soldiers in South Waziristan. The militants had severed heads of all of them.

Agencies add: At least eight soldiers were killed in clashes after militants attacked a checkpost in South Waziristan on Wednesday, officials said.

Militants armed with rockets and grenades stormed the checkpost in Surang Baba Ziarat village, around 30km north of Wana, a senior security official in Peshawar said.

The attack came during a military operation against militant hideouts which netted a huge cache of arms and ammunition, the official said.

Eight soldiers were killed and six injured in the checkpost attack, the official said, while 18 militants died during three hours of fighting.

A senior military official in the region said soldiers killed 10 Taliban fighters.

A second security official confirmed the military death toll.

The area is cut off to journalists and aid workers and it was not possible to confirm the death toll independently.

Military sources said four soldiers were killed in clashes in Bajaur and several were missing after Pakistani Taliban militants crossed the border from sanctuaries in Afghanistan and staged a raid.

Fighting has raged there for several days.