10 Pak troops go missing after Taliban attack

At least 10 Pakistani security personnel went missing after Taliban militants attacked their convoy in a lawless tribal region on the Afghan border, officials said yesterday.
"Taliban militants ambushed a convoy of 52 paramilitary Frontier Corps troops early Wednesday morning in Ghanam Shah area of Mohmand tribal region," top local administration official Amjad Ali Khan told AFP.
"We are in contact with 40 troops, while 10 are still missing and the bodies of two soldiers were found in Ghanam Shah," he said.
Helicopter gunships shelled militant hide-outs in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, killing 10 suspected fighters after gunmen murdered two paramilitary soldiers at a checkpoint in the area, officials said.
The gunmen also injured three soldiers when they attacked the checkpoint Tuesday night outside Bai Zai town in Mohmand, said an intelligence officer and a local government official. Security forces have been unable to establish contact with 10 other soldiers who were at the checkpoint at the time of the attack, they said.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to the media.
The helicopter assault against militant hide-outs in Bai Zai came as the army is waging a major anti-Taliban offensive against the group's main stronghold further south in Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal areas. Militants have retaliated against the South Waziristan offensive with a wave of attacks that have killed more than 300 people since the operation was launched in mid-October.