MIRANSHAH: Militants fired rockets at an army convoy and opened fire on a roadside military post in separate attacks in North Waziristan on Monday. Two soldiers were killed and 12 were wounded, an official said.The assailants fired a barrage of rockets at the convoy after it stopped when a roadside bomb went off close to it, a local intelligence official said. No one was hurt in the bomb blast, but one soldier was killed and 12 others wounded, two seriously, in the follow-up rocket attack, he said. In the other attack, militants driving a car opened small arms fire at a security post east of Miranshah, killing one soldier, the intelligence official said.
Local pro-Taliban tribal militants have been blamed for much of the fighting in North Waziristan in recent weeks. Military officials have said that Arab, Afghan and Central Asian militants – allegedly linked with Al Qaeda – are present in North and South Waziristan.
Earlier on Monday, militants fired rockets, mortars and small arms at a security post in South Waziristan, triggering a gun battle with troops that left one attacker dead and two others wounded, another intelligence official and a fighter said. The troops retaliated with artillery and small arms fire, forcing the assailants to retreat toward nearby hills after an hour-long gun battle in Humrang.