DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Pakistani militants on Thursday killed 15 security force members they kidnapped last month close to the Afghan border.

The mens' naked bodies were dumped in Shiwa town in the North Waziristan region, said local residents Sada-u-Alla and Salam Khan.

Intelligence officials confirmed the men had been killed. The officials didn't give their names because they were not authorised to be identified in the media.

In a statement, the Pakistani Taliban said the slayings were in retaliation for an army operation on Jan. 1 in the region that killed several militants, including a prominent commander. It alleged that troops also killed a woman and arrested others, ''something that was forbidden and illegitimate in Islam as well as against tribal traditions.''

The slain men were members of the Constabulary Corp, a paramilitary outfit active in the border region with Afghanistan.

The insurgents kidnapped them during a Dec. 22 attack on a Pakistani security base in the border region.