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Pakistan Says Three Militants Killed In Clash On Afghan Border


A Pakistani Army soldier stands guard as internally displaced persons from South Waziristan tribal areas, where the Pakistani Army is engaged in a full-scale military operation, prepare to return.
A Pakistani Army soldier stands guard as internally displaced persons from South Waziristan tribal areas, where the Pakistani Army is engaged in a full-scale military operation, prepare to return.

The Pakistani Army says that it pushed back an attack from militants at two posts on the border with Afghanistan, killing three of the militants.

The militants attacked two Pakistani border posts in the South Waziristan tribal region, it said on May 2. The army killed three of the attackers and injured a number of others in "intense exchanges of fire," it said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility in an e-mailed statement, describing it as revenge for a recent suspected U.S. drone strike that targeted the insurgents in the neighboring North Waziristan tribal region.

The statement said about 120 Taliban fighters took part in the raid, triggering an hourlong shoot-out.

Afghanistan accuses Pakistan of providing sanctuaries for Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network on its soil, while Pakistan accuses Afghanistan of sheltering Pakistani Taliban.

In February, the Pakistani military closed border crossings with Afghanistan after a suicide bomber, allegedly from a militant group operating out of Afghanistan, killed nearly 90 people at Sufi Islam's most revered shrine in Pakistan.

In March, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ordered the reopening of border crossings following talks between security officials from Pakistan and Afghanistan in London.

Based on reporting by AP and dpa
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