WANA/TANK, May 31 Militants suffered heavy casualties when troops repulsed their attacks in South Waziristan and the Jandola Frontier Region on Sunday, officials said.

However, as pitched battles raged in many areas the militants claimed inflicting heavy casualties on security forces.

According to officials, 15 militants were killed in the Serwakai subdivision of South Waziristan and Jandola and four soldiers lost their lives and 22 others were injured.

Over two dozens soldiers, who had lost contact with their unit during the clashes, safely returned to their base in Jandola on Sunday morning, they said.

Militants claimed that they had lost only four men and three others had been injured. A militant commander boasted to hav beheaded several soldiers they had captured during their attack on the Jandola Fort.

The claims could not be independently verified.

Tension gripped the area and civilians started leaving their homes when soldiers started advancing towards Chegmalai and Baitullah Mehsud demanded withdrawal of troops.

Taliban in the North Waziristan also warned the government to stop troop movement and called for withdrawal of regular troops from checkposts in their areas.

According to local people, heavy clashes, which started in Mehsud areas on Saturday morning, lasted till 5am on Sunday. The clashes, they said, were provoked by militants who had attacked several checkposts and a fort.

Security officials said that hundreds of militants attacked the Jandola Fort, using heavy weapons. Security forces launched a counter-attack and repulsed the militants. Troops recaptured a post in the Khaisoor area, which had been taken over by militants. According to an Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) statement, troops also repulsed an attack by militants on a checkpost in Spinkai Raghazai on Saturday night. It said 15 militants were killed.

The statement said that another 10 militants had been killed in clashes in Warza.

Sources said that more troops had been sent to Chegmalai where security forces were strengthening their position.

Iftikhar A. Khan adds from Islamabad A military spokesman said that 27 terrorists had been killed in various areas of Swat and South Waziristan. He said that one officer, Lieutenant Haider Nazir, and eight soldiers had laid down their lives and six soldiers had been injured.

He said that troops had not yet launched a military operation in South Waziristan.

Referring to the attack on a checkpost in Spinkai Raghazai in South Waziristan, he said troops had repulsed the attack and militants had suffered heavy casualties. He said that 15 militants were killed while three soldiers lost their lives in the engagement.

Six soldiers, he added, were injured and “four are missing”.

Ten militants were killed when they attacked a convoy near Warza in South Waziristan Agency. The convoy was going to the Teyarza Fort.

The troops, he said, were fired upon from a residential compound in Hasora village after they had defused two explosive devices laid on the road and were trying to defuse the third one. The soldiers hit back and killed 10 militants who were firing from the compound. Lieutenant Haider Nazir gunned down three militants before he and three other soldiers were killed.

AFP adds Officials said that a higher number of militants had been killed in the two encounters.

“According to fresh reports, more than 45 militants have been killed,” Syed Ahmad, a police official in the tribal area, said.

Khan Badshah, another official, said the rebels had taken most of the dead bodies away.