Peshawar:
Six soldiers were killed and two more injured when militants ambushed an army patrol on the outskirts of Peshawar city in northwest Pakistan, security sources said on Thursday.
The patrol was passing through Mattani area on the outskirts of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa capital when it was attacked by a group of militants at 10 pm Wednesday night.
"During an exchange of fire with the terrorists, six soldiers were killed while two were injured," a security source said.
The sources claimed five militants were killed in the gun battle though this could not be independently confirmed. Reports in the media said the patrol, consisting of three vehicles, was attacked with rocket propelled grenades.
Two vehicles were destroyed and five soldiers were killed. The driver of the third vehicle drove to a nearby police post.
The injured soldiers were taken to a nearby military hospital, where one of them succumbed to his injuries.
Additional police and paramilitary forces were sent to the area. They engaged the militants in an hour-long gun battle and later carried out a search operation. However, the militants escaped under the cover of darkness.
This was the second such attack in the area over the past two months.
The Mattani area has recently witnessed a spike in violent attacks, giving rise to fears that militants have sneaked back into the region despite several operations to flush them out.