At least ten dead in a shootout between the Pakistani Army and the Taliban

ISLAMABAD, 16 March. (DPA/EP) –

At least two children and eight Taliban have been killed in a gunfight in Pakistan’s northwest South Waziristan region, near the Afghan border, in a shootout with Pakistani soldiers.

The Pakistani Army has reported that troops were carrying out an operation in the area, in a hideout where eight alleged members of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) group, known as the Pakistani Taliban, have been shot.

However, the Pakistan Armed Forces have assured that they do not know where the fire against the minors came from, according to a statement.

The TTP group, which differs from the Afghan Taliban in organizational matters but follows the same rigorous interpretation of Sunni Islam, brings together more than a dozen Islamist militant groups operating in Pakistan, where they have killed some 70,000 people in two decades of violence.