MOHMAND: A military operation killed up to 15 militants after dozens of insurgents attacked a security checkpoint in a northwestern tribal region on the Afghan border on Sunday, a senior government official said. 

Pakistani army forces have killed more than 100 militants in the past month in small-scale operations against militants’ strongholds in the Mohmand tribal agency. But militants often melt away, set up strongholds elsewhere or try to return to areas they lost. 

About 100 militants attacked a security checkpoint in the area of Ziarat with heavy weapons after midnight, triggering a clash that continued for several hours. 

“As we had information about the possible attack, our troops were fully prepared and up to 15 militants were killed in the retaliatory attack,” government official Maqsood Khan told Reuters. 

More than 2,000 people have been killed in suicide bomb attacks across Pakistan since the army stormed a militant-run mosque in capital Islamabad in 2007.