Pakistan: 12 killed during military raid in central Pakistan
At least nine suspected Pakistani Taliban fighters and three soldiers have been killed after a shootout following a joint military and police raid in the central district of Dera Ghazi Khan, Pakistan’s military says.
Two soldiers were also wounded in the clash, which targeted a suspected Taliban hideout in the Basti Dadwani area of Dera Ghazi Khan, about 490km south of the capital Islamabad, the military said in a statement.
Pakistan Ranger units - a parimiliatary force - were carrying out a search operation in the area to arrest other suspects, it said.
Friday’s raid came as part of the military’s Operation Radd-ul-Fasaad (Elimination of Chaos), launched in the wake of a string of suicide bombings and attacks that killed at least 130 people across Pakistan in February.