5 Pakistani soldiers killed in attack ‘from inside Afghanistan’

Attack in northern Kurram district latest in string of deadly assaults in Pakistan since Taliban took power in Afghanistan

Five Pakistani soldiers were killed in an attack by terrorists “from inside Afghanistan,” the military said on Sunday.

The attack in the northern Kurram district is the latest in a string of deadly assaults in Pakistan since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan after the hurried US pullout last August.

A spate of bomb blasts and attacks on security forces in recent months has raised fears of a resurgence of terrorism in the South Asian country.

Pakistani troops also inflicted “heavy casualties” on the attackers, read a statement from the Inter-Services Public Relations, the military’s media wing.

“Pakistan strongly condemns the use of Afghan soil by terrorists for activities against Pakistan and expects that the interim Afghan government will not allow conduct of such activities against Pakistan in future,” the statement added.

Sunday’s attack comes days after Moeed Yusuf, Pakistan’s national security adviser, traveled to Afghanistan’s capital Kabul for a series of meetings with the top Taliban leadership.

Yusuf was reportedly assured by the Taliban that they would not allow terrorists to use Afghanistan as a base for attacks on Pakistan.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.