Pakistani Taliban ambush kills 12 soldiers in restive northwest

At least 12 soldiers were killed in an ambush in northwest Pakistan on Saturday, government and security officials said, in an attack claimed by the Pakistani Taliban.

Militancy has surged in the border regions with Afghanistan since the return to power of the Afghan Taliban in Kabul in 2021, although Saturday's attack was one of the deadliest in months in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Islamabad accuses neighbouring Afghanistan of failing to expel militants using Afghan territory to launch attacks on Pakistan, an accusation that authorities in Kabul deny.

The Pakistan military said after the ambush early on Saturday that intelligence reports "have unequivocally confirmed physical involvement of Afghan Nationals in these heinous acts".

"Pakistan expects the Interim Afghan Government to uphold its responsibilities and deny use of its soil for terrorist activities against Pakistan," it said in a statement.

The Pakistani Taliban, the Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP), claimed responsibility for the attack in a message on social media.

The group is separate to but closely linked with the Afghan Taliban.

A local government official said a military convoy was passing through a town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's South Waziristan district at around 4:00 am when "armed men opened fire from both sides with heavy weapons".

Twelve security personnel were killed and four wounded, the official said.

A security officer stationed in the area confirmed the death toll and said the attackers had seized the convoy's weapons.

Pakistan's government launched a crackdown in 2023 to evict Afghans who had fled violence at home over more than four decades.

Citing an uptick in violent attacks and insurgent campaigns, it painted the Afghan population in Pakistan as "terrorists and criminals".

More than 2.1 million Afghans have returned from Pakistan and Iran so far this year, according to the United Nations refugee agency.

"It is very important that illegal Afghan citizens be repatriated soon," Pakistani media quoted Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif as saying on Saturday.

Sharif and Pakistan's army chief, General Asim Munir, travelled to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to attend the funerals of the 12 soldiers.

The TTP once controlled swathes of territory in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, until they were pushed back by a military operation that began in 2014.

Residents of various districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have reported for several weeks that graffiti bearing the TTP's name has appeared on buildings.

They say they fear a return to the TTP's reign over the region during the peak of the US "War on Terror" that spilled across from Afghanistan.

A senior local government official recently told AFP that the number of TTP fighters and attacks had increased.

Nearly 460 people, mostly members of the security forces, have been killed this year in attacks carried out by armed groups fighting the state, both in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the southern province of Balochistan, according to an AFP tally.

Last year was Pakistan's deadliest in nearly a decade, with more than 1,600 killed, nearly half of them soldiers and police officers, according to the Islamabad-based Center for Research and Security Studies.