11 dead in two security ops against militants in Pak's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Pakistan's security forces raided two militant hideouts in the country's restive northwest on Saturday, triggering gun battles that left at least two soldiers and nine militants dead, the military said in a statement.

The raids were conducted in the Mohmand and Dera Ismail Khan districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan.

According to local police officials, the insurgents were Pakistani Taliban, who are known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP. 

The outlawed TTP is a separate group but an ally of the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in neighbouring Afghanistan in August 2021 as US and NATO troops were in the final stages of a withdrawal from the country after 20 years of war.

Many TTP leaders and fighters have found sanctuaries and have even been living openly in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover, which also emboldened the Pakistani Taliban.

Separately on Saturday, insurgents ambushed security forces in the northwestern Kurram district of Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan, local police said. However, authorities have yet to confirm any troop casualties.

The military is currently engaged in an ongoing operation in Kurram, an area that has witnessed years of sectarian violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslim communities. Hundreds of people have been killed in clashes between heavily armed factions, exacerbating tensions in the region.

Since November, Kurram has remained isolated after authorities blocked key roads following sectarian violence. The closure has led to severe shortages of medicine and food, further deepening the humanitarian crisis.