Pakistani Taliban Capture a Para Military Fort, 47 Dead

WANA, Pakistan: Hundreds of Pakistani Taliban forces in northwest Pakistan attacked and captured a paramilitary fort early on Wednesday, and 40 Taliban militants and Seven Pakistan military soldiers were killed and 20 soldiers missing, according to the information released by Pakistan military source.

The militants attacked the fort in the South Waziristan region on the Afghan border at about midnight on Tuesday and fighting went on for hours, military spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas said.

""About 200 militants charged the fort from four sides," Abbas said.

"They were able to breach one of the walls of the fort. In the process, there were about 40 militants dead and seven FC personnel were reported killed," he said, referring to the Frontier Corps paramilitary force.

Fifteen soldiers escaped and 20 were missing, he said.

They said the militants entered the remote military outpost and started shifting weapons and troops they had captured out of the fort.

It is unclear whether the militants are still inside the fort.

Correspondents say that Sararogha Fort dates back to the British colonial period.

It is one of several such posts located along South Waziristan's mountainous border with Afghanistan.

Military personnel at the base monitor and patrol the frontier which it is claimed is used by militants to transport weapons into Afghanistan.

A spokesman for the Taliban militants, Maulvi Omar, said they had killed 16 Pakistani soldiers and captured 12 in the attack. He said only two of his men were killed.

"The fort is still in our control," he said.

Pakistan security forces have been battling “Islamic militants” on behalf of the US as an extended Pentagon’s mercenary force in South Waziristan for several years. President retd. General Musharraf confessed recently that Pakistan received 10 billion dollars after 9/11 and 9 billion dollars have been utilized to combat “Terrorism” in Pakistan’s Northern areas.