Nine soldiers killed in terrorist attack on Pakistan military facility

Terrorists have attacked a security post in southwest Pakistan, triggering an intense shootout that left nine soldiers, five attackers and a female passerby dead, officials and the military have said.

The newly formed terror group Tehreek-e-Jihad Pakistan claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on Wednesday without providing further details.

Hours after the attack, Pakistan's military said in a statement that "a group of terrorists launched a dastardly attack" in the garrison district of Zhob in the southwestern Balochistan province.

The "initial attempt of terrorists to sneak into the facility was checked by soldiers on duty," it read.

The shootout left three attackers and four soldiers dead, while five troops were critically wounded.

The military later said the security forces, in a search operation, killed two more attackers who had escaped.

Earlier, a senior government official, Azam Kakar, said the attackers were armed with assault rifles and apparently wanted to sneak into a compound housing military offices and troops' residences.

Kakar said the shootout lasted for hours and a woman died after getting caught in the crossfire.

Low-level insurgency

The gas-rich Balochistan province at the border of Afghanistan and Iran has been the scene of a low-level insurgency for more than two decades, with Baloch separatists in the province demanding complete autonomy or a larger share of the province's gas and mineral resources.

Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan or TTP terror group, also has a presence in Balochistan and has claimed multiple past attacks there.

The terrorist group is separate from yet allied with the Afghan Taliban, which rules the neighbouring country.

TTP terrorists have stepped up attacks since revoking a ceasefire agreement with the government in late 2022, including the bombing of a mosque in the northwestern city of Peshawar that killed more than 100 people in January.

Kabul's Taliban government denies the claim by the Pakistani government that TTP terrorists have shifted operational bases to Afghanistan.