The attackers armed with heavy weapons including mortars and rocket launchers struck before dawn at the two militia posts outside Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
, close to the restive tribal areas that border Afghanistan. "The exchange of gunfire lasted about one hour in which they killed two soldiers, maimed one and took away 22 others," local administration official Naveed Akbar told AFP.
He said security forces had barricaded some roads and launched search operations in certain areas but no success had been reported so far. A security official confirmed 22 members of the tribal militia were missing from the camps, which lie in a mountainous area about three kilometres apart. The camps are close to Pakistain's tribal areas, which are regarded as havens for Taliban and al Qaeda linked bad boys.
Other Pak officials, however, said at least 30 men had been taken, a figure echoed by Taliban spokesmen. Eight of the paramilitary soldiers have been killed, Taliban front man Muhammed Afridi said in Khyber Agency
. He said the group had captured 30 soldiers. Another front man, Ihsanullah Ihsan, said 33 were taken. Military sources said no soldiers or police were missing. The Levies is a force raised from the tribes and supported by the Pak government. In August, the Pak Taliban released a video showing what appeared to be the severed heads of a dozen soldiers, after the military said 15 troops had gone missing following fighting with Orcs and similar vermin in the Bajaur tribal district. There has been a surge in attacks in northwest Pakistain in the past two weeks, including a suicide kaboom on a political meeting in Peshawar on Saturday that killed Bashir Bilour, the second top politician in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
province.
The Pak Taliban grabbed credit for that attack, saying Bilour, an outspoken critic of the bad boys, was assassinated in Dire Revenge™ for the death of one of the movement's "elders". Pakistain has lost more than 3,000 soldiers in the fight against homegrown hard boyz but has resisted US pressure to do more to eliminate havens used by those fighting the Americans in Afghanistan.