ISLAMABAD

Pakistan lost 21 soldiers and killed 36 militants in September, including three militants who were killed in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Tuesday, data with Anadolu shows.

According to a statement by Pakistan’s army, an intense fire exchange took place between the security forces and the militants in the Tirah area of the Khyber District near the Afghanistan border that resulted in the killing of three militants, including militant commander Kifayat Tor Adnan who was actively involved in multiple militant activities against law enforcement agencies as well as killing of innocent civilians.

During the ongoing month, the military killed 36 militants in six different operations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

At least 21 soldiers also lost their lives in militant attacks, including a suicide bombing on Aug. 31 in the Jani Khel area of Bannu District in which nine soldiers got killed.

On Sept. 6, over a dozen militants and four Pakistani soldiers were killed during a clash that took place in the Chitral district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders neighboring Afghanistan.

On the same day, Pakistan and Afghan Taliban forces also clashed at the border causing the closure of Torkham, a key border crossing with neighboring Afghanistan that connects Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province to Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province, for 10 days.

Pakistan has seen a surge in militant attacks since the recapture of Kabul by the Taliban in August 2021.

Islamabad accuses Kabul of not acting against the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) which has allegedly been using Afghan soil to carry out attacks in Pakistan.

Afghanistan, however, rebuffs the accusation.