By DPA
Islamabad : Some 250 militants and 60 troops were killed in clashes in Pakistan’s tribal areas since the July storming of a radical mosque in Islamabad, a military spokesman said Friday amid fresh attacks.
Casualties among security forces resulted from roadside bombs, suicide attacks and fire fights with Islamic militants, mainly in the tribal areas of North and South Waziristan, army spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad said.
He also confirmed that six soldiers died and 33 were injured Friday in two attacks on military vehicles travelling near the town of Miranshah in North Waziristan.
A suspected Islamic militant rammed an explosives-laden car into a convoy, killing himself and five soldiers and injuring 30.
Another soldier died and three were injured in a second suicide bombing on vehicles driving to Razmak, located about 75 km south of Miranshah.
It was not clear if the casualty figure included three members of the paramilitary Frontier Corps who were injured in a bomb explosion in the same area.
A day earlier, five people were injured in Miranshah when militants fired rockets and light artillery at a checkpoint, damaging a nearby hospital in the process.
Local tribes pulled out of peace treaties with the government after troops stormed the Red Mosque in the capital on July 10, ending a five-month stand-off with radical clerics calling for Taliban-style Islamic rule in Pakistan. More than 100 people died in the assault.
Retaliatory attacks immediately ensued in the border regions, where the United States had for months criticised the peace treaties, saying they merely created safe zones for Taliban insurgents and Al Qaeda.
Pakistan has around 90,000 troops deployed along its western border but has been unable to prevent militants in Waziristan from launching attacks at international forces in Afghanistan.