20 terrorists killed in bid to enter Mohmand from Afghanistan

RAWALPINDI: Twenty terrorists were killed as security forces foiled their move to enter the Mohmand Agency from Afghanistan side in the Shunkrai area on Saturday night.
According to sources, a group of terrorists tried to sneak into the Pakistani territory at about 01:30am. The Pakistani troops spotted the move and surrounded them. An intense exchange of fire took place for about an hour during which 20 terrorists were killed.
The bodies of the killed terrorists are in the custody of security forces. —AgenciesOur correspondent adds from Ghallanai: Official sources said some of the militants managed to escape after the clash.
Meanwhile, Ehsanullah Ehsan, spokesman for the militant group Jamaatul Ahraar, denied that any clash had taken place at the Afghanistan-Pakistan border on Sunday. “There was no such clash. We believe our colleagues in the custody of the government were brought there and shot dead. It has happened in the past also but we would avenge the killings,” he stressed.
Our correspondent adds from Miranshah: Four suspected militants were killed when a US drone targeted a house in the forested Shawal area in North Waziristan on Sunday, sources said.
“The drone fired two missiles at the house in Shawal,” said an official requesting not to be named.He said at least four suspected militants were killed in the attack. However, the identity of those killed wasn’t disclosed.
The US drone strike in North Waziristan took place after more than a month. The last attack was in March when three Pakistani militants were killed. Initial reports at the time said the strike took place just inside Afghanistan close to the Pak-Afghan border but later the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) issued a statement claiming that it had happened in the Shabak area in Kurram Agency just across the boundary with North Waziristan.
The TTP, in the statement, conceded that three of its fighters, including commander Khawray Mehsud, who was the bodyguard of the group’s late head Baitullah Mehsud, had been killed in the drone strike. Baitullah Mehsud was also killed in a US drone attack in his native South Waziristan in 2009.