Militants ambush Pakistani troops in northwest, killing 7

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan’s military says militants ambushed a military convoy in a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban near the Afghan border, triggering an intense shootout in which seven soldiers and four insurgents were killed. A statement from the military on Friday says the ambush took place on Thursday in North Waziristan, a district in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. There was no immediate claim of responsibility but suspicion fell on the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan. Pakistan’s military said on Thursday that 128 militants have been killed in the region bordering Afghanistan since January. The military acknowledged that nearly 100 soldiers have been killed in militant attacks during the same period.