90 miscreants killed in tribal area fort attack

AFP:

PAKISTANI troops killed up to 90 Islamist militants after the rebels besieged a military base and ambushed a convoy near the Afghan border, the army said.

Troops fought off a large number of insurgents who surrounded and attacked the Ladha fort in the troubled tribal region of South Waziristan, killing 50 to 60 of the attackers, the army said.

Militants earlier ambushed a convoy of security forces in the same region with rockets and small arms, sparking an hour-long firefight that left 20 to 30 hardline fighters dead and four soldiers injured.

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The clashes at Ladha fort on Friday erupted when "miscreants" started firing rockets and small arms at the outpost in the morning, after which dozens of attackers started to gather around the building.

"Security forces used artillery, mortars and small-arms fire to engage the miscreants. Reportedly, 50-60 miscreants were killed and (the) rest of them dispersed," the army said.

There were no casualties reported by the security forces.

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Give those guys a medal. Someone in Pakistan has figured out how to defend a fortified position. It appears that their were fewer miscreants in this attack than the earlier attacks on the forts which including estimates of 700 or more attackers. It is not clear how this group of miscreants expected to penetrate the fortress. The description offered by AFP suggest a "Jericho" strategy where Joshua marched the Israelis around the walls of the city until they fell. They needed something larger than RPGs in this mission.