Five militants killed in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD - Five insurgents were killed Tuesday when the Pakistani army foiled an attempt to blow up a military training centre in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, security officials said.

Three militants wearing suicide vests and four other rebels providing them with cover tried to enter the Punjab Regiment training facility in Mardan district in the north-west of the country.

“Sentries who were alert spotted suicide bombers and targeted them. All three suicide bombers blew themselves up before reaching their targets,” military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said.

He said the remaining four terrorists who had already taken positions on nearby buildings, opened fire on the soldiers who immediately responded and killed “two terrorists”.

Four soldiers also received minor injuries.

The forces cordoned off the area and were searching for the remaining two militants.

A purported spokesman of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, Ihsanullah Ihsan, said eight men including three suicide bombers carried out the attack.

“The suicide bombers blew themselves up killing 28 personnel,” he said in a statement sent to the media from an undisclosed location.

Mardan, located 63 kilometres north of provincial capital Peshawar, is of strategic and political importance because it has several army facilities, and the chief minister of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa comes from the same area.

Pakistan has stepped up counter-insurgency operations in the north-western region along the Afghan border, where most of the key Taliban and al-Qaeda leaders are allegedly hiding.

The US has praised the efforts but has also demanded operations in North Waziristan, which is allegedly used by the militants to launch attacks on NATO troops in Afghanistan.