Wazoo on Thursday, killing eight soldiers, intelligence officials said, as tensions rise in the border region.Twelve cut-throats were killed in retaliatory firing by security forces.
The attack came on the heels of stepped-up missile strikes by U.S. drone aircraft in the tribal region along the Afghan border regarded as a hub of cut-throats from around the world.
"The cut-throats were carrying rockets and heavy weapons and attacked the checkpost shortly after midnight," an intelligence official in the region told Rooters.
"Eight soldiers were killed and twelve were maimed," he added.
Security forces hit back at the bad turbans, killing at least 12 of them and wounding five, another official said.
The attack took place in Makeen, an area on the border between North and Waziristan, which was once a stronghold of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP), the main alliance of Pakistain's homegrown bad turban groups involved in suicide and kabooms across the country.
Pakistain army launched a major offensive in South Waziristan in 2009, driving TTP fighters out of their bases in the restive region.
Many TTP leaders, including its chief Hakimullah Mehsud, were believed to have decamped into North Waziristan.
The United States has been urging the Pak military to launch a ground offensive in North Waziristan, which is also the main of the Haqqani network that leads the insurgency just over the border in eastern Afghanistan.