Taliban Kill Five Pakistani Soldiers

Taliban militants launched an attack on a military convoy in Pakistan's northwestern tribal belt on Saturday, killing five soldiers and wounding three others, security officials said.

The convoy came under attack near Razmak town, more than 50 kilometers south of Miranshah, the main town in the North Waziristan tribal district along the Afghan border, officials said.

"The convoy was moving from one area to another when Taliban militants attacked it, killing five soldiers and wounding three others," a security official in Peshawar told Agence France Presse.

Another security official in Miranshah confirmed the incident, saying militants were armed with rockets and automatic weapons.

"They also hurled grenades in the attack," the official said.

Troops retaliated immediately with small and heavy weapons but there was no report of Taliban casualties, he added.

North Waziristan is the main target of U.S. drone strikes and the most notorious bastion of Afghan Taliban and al-Qaida-linked fighters in Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal belt.

Washington has called the northwest region the global headquarters of al-Qaida and U.S. officials are increasing pressure on Islamabad to launch an all-out military offensive in North Waziristan.

Despite Pakistan coming under huge pressure after Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. troops in a garrison city on May 2, Islamabad insists any operation in North Waziristan would be of Pakistan's choosing.

More than 4,700 people have been killed across Pakistan in attacks blamed on Taliban and other Islamist extremist networks based in the tribal belt since government troops stormed a radical mosque in Islamabad in 2007.