At least 12 Pakistani soldiers were killed during an exchange of fire with terrorists in northwestern Pakistan, the military said in a statement on Saturday.
The military's media wing said 35 terrorists belonging to the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) were killed during two separate military operations from September 10-13.
In the first operation in Bajaur district, 22 terrorists were killed, while during the second encounter in South Waziristan, 12 soldiers and 13 terrorists were killed.
Both encounters occurred with the "Fitna al Khwarij," the statement said, referring to the TTP.
A military convoy was passing through a town in South Waziristan district at around 4:00 am when "armed men opened fire from both sides with heavy weapons", killing 12 security personnel and wounding four, a local government official said.
A security officer stationed in the area confirmed the death toll and said the attackers had seized the convoy's weapons.
TTP claims responsibility for the attack
The terror group Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack in a message on social media.
The group acts independently, but is closely linked with the Afghan Taliban.
It was one of the deadliest attacks in months in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where the TTP once controlled swaths of territory until they were pushed back by a military operation that began in 2014.
Islamabad accuses neighbouring Afghanistan of failing to expel terrorists using Afghan territory to launch attacks on Pakistan, an accusation that authorities in Kabul deny.
For several weeks, residents of various districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have reported that graffiti bearing the TTP's name has appeared on buildings.
They say they fear a return to the TTP's reign over the region during the peak of the US "War on Terror" that spilled across from Afghanistan.
A senior local government official recently told AFP that the number of TTP terrorists and attacks had increased.
Nearly 460 people, mostly members of the security forces, have been killed since January 1 in attacks carried out by armed groups fighting the state, both in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the southern province of Balochistan, according to an AFP tally.
Last year was Pakistan's deadliest in nearly a decade, with more than 1,600 deaths, nearly half of them soldiers and police officers, according to the Islamabad-based Center for Research and Security Studies.
