Pakistani security forces raid militant hideout in northwest, killing 17 Taliban fighters

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani security forces on Friday raided a militant hideout in the country’s restive northwest, triggering a shootout that left 17 Pakistani Taliban fighters dead, police said.

The clash took place in Karak, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, according to regional Police Chief Shehbaz Elahi. He said three officers were wounded in the gunbattle.

Elahi provided no further details but said that the killed militants were “Khwarij,” a term often used by Pakistani authorities to refer to members of the Pakistani Taliban.

While security forces frequently carry out such operations, Friday’s raid followed a similar intelligence-based operation two days earlier in Dera Ismail Khan, another district in the northwest, where 13 Pakistani Taliban fighters were killed in a shootout.

Pakistan has seen a rise in militant violence in recent years, much of it claimed by separatist groups and the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP.

The TTP is a separate group from, but allied with, the Afghan Taliban. It has been emboldened since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in 2021, and many of its leaders and fighters are believed to have taken refuge in Afghanistan since then.