13 dead in cross-border attack near Mohmand Agency

At least 13 Pakistani soldiers including an army major were killed in Mohmand Agency near Afghan border as US-led forces in Afghanistan battled militants infiltrating into Afghanistan, a security official said on Wednesday.The soldiers were killed at a border post in the Mohmand Ageny, opposite Afghanistan’s Kunar province, late on Tuesday.”The militants launched a cross-border attack into Afghanistan. At least 13 of our soldiers were killed including Major Akbar in a counter-offensive by forces in Afghanistan,” said a senior Pakistani security official who declined to be identified.
The official did not say if the forces battling militants on the Afghan side were from Nato or a separate US force.He also did not say how the Pakistani paramilitary soldiers were killed, but residents said they were believed to have been killed in an air strike.A government official said late on Tuesday a pilotless US drone was suspected to have fired a missile into the area. US-controlled Predator aircraft have struck at least four sites used by al Qaeda in Pakistan this year, killing dozens of suspected militants.Government officials in the area said about 40 soldiers were at the post in Suran Dara, about 30 km (20 miles) northwest of Mohmand’s main town of Ghalanai, and they had no information about the others.Neither a Pakistani military spokesman nor US or Nato spokesmen in Afghanistan were available for comment.