Militants have killed at least three Pakistani soldiers in an attack on a border post in the restive northwestern tribal belt.
About two dozen militants armed with sophisticated weapons crossed from the Afghan province of Kunar to launch the pre-dawn ambush in Bajaur district on Saturday, Pakistani officials said.
"Militants from across the border ambushed a check post. Two security personnel and an officer embraced martyrdom in the attack," a security official in Bajaur told AFP by telephone.
"One sepoy (soldier) and a civilian were also wounded," the official added.
A senior government official said the militants were forced to flee after troops retaliated.
No group has yet claimed responsibility but both officials said Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants were involved in the attack.
"It might be in retaliation for the Pakistan military offensive in North Waziristan," the government official told AFP.
Pakistan's armed forces have been waging a massive offensive in North Waziristan, a tribal district south of Bajaur, for the past three-and-a-half weeks to eradicate hideouts militants have used to launch attacks across the restive nuclear-armed country.
The army says it has killed 400 insurgents in the course of the operation there.
Hardline cleric Maulana Fazlullah, current head of the TTP which rose up against the Pakistani state in 2007, is believed to be possibly hiding across the border in Kunar.
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