Eight Pakistani Soldiers Killed as Militants Intensify Attacks.

Peshawar: Eight Pakistani soldiers were killed in a shoot-out with Islamist militants as renewed violence surged in the volatile South Asian nation, officials said on Tuesday. Fighting broke out overnight between troops and militants in the Khyber region near the Afghan border, resulting in the death of eight soldiers, local police official Mohamed Haroon told dpa.According to Ghana News Agency, at least nine militants were also killed and six wounded in the incident, which lasted for several hours, Haroon said. The latest encounter occurred as the military pushed ahead with an offensive against the members of Pakistani Taliban, who are allegedly launching cross-border attacks from their mountainous hideouts in neighbouring Afghanistan.The Pakistani Taliban, which is separate from the Afghan group of the same name, claimed responsibility for killing the soldiers. In a second incident, gunmen kidnapped seven Pakistani police officers from a checkpoint in the nearby region of Bannu, local official Imtiaz K han said. A manhunt was under way, but it was initially unclear which group was behind the abduction, Khan added.The Pakistani Taliban and their affiliated groups have been increasingly active in Pakistan's troubled north-western regions since their Afghan counterparts took over the neighbouring country in 2021.