MIRAMSHAH, Sept 20: Eight soldiers were injured on Thursday when suspected pro-Taliban militants fired rockets on a checkpost in a restive tribal area bordering Afghanistan, officials said.

Troops at the Khajuri checkpost in North Waziristan retaliated with artillery fire, but there were no immediate reports about militant casualties, a security official told AFP.

“Eight soldiers were injured, two of them seriously when two rockets hit their post,” the official said.

Pakistan has lost around 1,000 troops since pushing forces into the tribal belt to hunt Al-Qaeda-led militants who fled the US-led invasion that toppled Afghanistan’s Taliban regime after the 9/11 attacks.

In a separate incident, suspected militants shot dead a tribesman who they said had spied on their activities in Bajaur, another tribal district on the Afghan border.

The bullet-riddled body of the tribesman was found some 25 km (15 miles) northwest of Khar, the main town in Bajaur, a security official said.

Militants have shot dead several tribesmen and elders who support the ongoing military operation in the area.—AFP