Pakistani Security Forces Kill Several Militants in Overnight Raid

World

February 22nd, 9:32am

Asharq Al-Awsat

Pakistani students hold flowers to pay tribute to the victims of a 2014 attack on a Peshawar school, during the fifth anniversary, in Karachi, Pakistan, Monday, Dec. 16, 2019. Pakistani Taliban militants attacked an army-run school in Peshawar on Dec. 16, 2014, killing 150 people, mostly children. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

Pakistani security forces said Saturday that five suspected militants were killed in an overnight shootout in the country's northwest. Pakistan has carried out a number of operations in the country's rugged northwest in recent years. The government has repeatedly claimed the areas were cleared of insurgents, but violence there continue. Senior counter-terrorism officer Tahir Khan said the incident took place at a compound in the working-class suburb of Mathra near Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The militants were affiliates of a banned group and security forces found suicide vests, sub-machine guns and other weapons at the scene, he said, The Associated Press reported. Terror attacks in Pakistan dropped by more than 85% over the last decade, from nearly 2,000 attacks in 2009 to fewer than 250 in 2019, according to Pakistani think tanks. Earlier, two militant commanders from the Sajna group of the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban, were captured in a separate Friday-night raid, according to counter-terrorism officer Mohammad Ajmal.

from Asharq AL-awsat https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/2144001/pakistani-security-forces-kill-several-militants-overnight-raid