Six Pakistani Soldiers Killed in Orakzai Attack

Military Claims 35 Taliban Slain in Retaliation

For a region in which the Pakistani military only a week ago declared “victory,” there is a surprisingly large amount of violence in the Orakzai Agency, where well over 100 people have been slain in the past week.

The latest clash involved militant forces from one of the various Taliban factions attacking a military checkpoint, killing at least six soldiers and leaving another eight wounded.

The Pakistani military responded by shelling the area they believed the militants came from and said that at least 35 fighters were slain.

The Pakistani military’s shellings in the region have killed over 1,000 “suspects” since the beginning of the offensive, but with no journalists on the ground independent verifications of who is exactly being killed and in what numbers remains impossible.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.