In Pakistan, 16 soldiers killed in an attack claimed by the Taliban

Taliban guard the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan on September 6, 2023, near Torkham, Pakistan. ABDUL MAJEED / AFP Sixteen soldiers died and five others were seriously injured after an attack carried out on the night of Friday December 20 to Saturday December 21 against a Pakistani military base, near the border with Afghanistan, two security officials said. information from Agence France-Presse. This offensive was claimed by the Pakistani Taliban. The attack, which lasted for two hours about 40 kilometers from the Afghan border, was carried out by “more than 30 fighters” on a base in the Makeen region, in the mountainous province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, said a senior intelligence official. According to the latter, they also burned documents and communication equipment. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying in a statement that it was “retaliation for the martyrdom of senior commanders.” They added that they had seized military equipment, including machine guns and a night vision device. Pakistani Taliban trained in Afghanistan Attacks by jihadists or separatists regularly target the army and police in the country of 240 million inhabitants, particularly on its border with Afghanistan. Pakistan is especially experiencing an increase in attacks by the Pakistani Taliban (TTP), trained for combat in Afghanistan and who claim the same ideology as the Taliban, who have returned to power in Kabul since 2021. According to a Security Council report According to the UN report in July, approximately 6,500 TTP fighters are based in Afghanistan and “are not considered by the Taliban authorities to be a terrorist group.” The Afghan Taliban supports and tolerates them, “providing weapons and allowing them to train,” the report said. Read also | Article reserved for our Afghanistan subscribers: “How can we imagine relations with a regime that locks up women? » Read later Le Monde with AFP Reuse this content



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