PESHAWAR: Taliban put up stiff resistance in South Waziristan on Thursday, killing at least 17 soldiers in the militarys deadliest day since launching a major offensive there, security officials said.

Troops were dragged into clashes when trying to clear militants from areas adjoining Taliban stronghold of Kaniguram.

At least 15 soldiers were killed in the fighting, while a roadside bomb killed two soldiers in Sararogha area further east, officials said.

The Inter-Services Public Relations had said earlier that five soldiers had died in fighting since Wednesday evening.

However, army and security officials in the area said the military death toll stood at 17.

Fifteen soldiers were killed in the clashes, an army officer said on condition of anonymity, releasing 15 names.

It is the first time we have seen such stiff resistance, he said. Another official, also requesting anonymity, said the clashes included face-to-face fighting.

Security officials speaking on condition of anonymity have frequently released information from the South Waziristan battlefield that was later corroborated by the army headquarters in Rawalpindi.

Thursdays losses come just one day after a landmine and separate ambush killed 10 Pakistani troops in the tribal district of Mohmand, further north along the Afghan border, in a sign that a guerilla campaign is spreading.

The ISPR said that 22 militants were killed in South Waziristan, which would bring to 524 the number reported dead since the offensive began.

The military says 53 soldiers have been killed in the campaign, a fraction of the number lost in past campaigns as security officials say that many militants have fled to nearby tribal districts North Waziristan and Orakzai.AFP

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/provinces/06-five-troops-killed-in-army-offensive-military-rs-01

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wait for 6 months. All these towns that pakistani army is supposed to be capturing will be recaptured by taleban

we are not fighting Taliban, most of the Taliban and tribes are on the armys side in waziristan. Army are fighting a sub clan of the mehsud Pashtun tribe who are sheltering foreign trouble makers.

RIP

SURRENDER OF PAKI ARMY IN 1971
1N 1971 A NEW HISTORY AS WELL AS A NEW NATION WAS CREATED BY WE THE INDIANS..