Pakistani Taliban claim attack in northwest that left 2 soldiers, 2 militants dead

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — The Pakistani Taliban have claimed responsibility for an attack in northwest Pakistan that left two soldiers and two militants dead. The army said in a statement that militants opened fire on a security checkpoint Saturday evening in the Bannu district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, leading to a shootout with Pakistani troops. A search operation was underway to track the militants behind the attack. Taliban spokesman Mohammad Khorasani said — in a statement on their website — that the group carried out the “joint attack” in collaboration with another faction of the Pakistani Taliban, the Hafiz Gul Bahadur group. The Pakistani Taliban are a separate group but are allied with the Afghanistan Taliban, who took over Afghanistan in August 2021.