The New Nation - Internet Edition

Reuters, Mingora

At least 25 killed in Militants' ambush and fighting in northwest Pakistan.

At least fifteen Pakistani paramilitary soldiers and five Islamist militants have been killed in a clash in the northwestern Swat Valley, police said on Wednesday.

The fighting broke out on Tuesday in Kabal area, a stronghold of Pakistani Taliban fighters, after a roadside bomb blast aimed at a paramilitary convoy.

"After the exchange of fire that lasted for several hours, more than 20 troops went missing but today we found 15 dead bodies at the site," Noor Rehman, a police officer in Kabal, told Reuters. He said six troops were still missing.

A military spokesman in Swat also confirmed the incident and said security forces had foiled a suicide attack on Tuesday and destroyed a explosive-laden vehicle in the area.

Meanwhile, Pakistani officials say militants have ambushed a convoy of troops and police in the country's volatile northwest, killing five of them.

Dilawar Bangash is the police chief in the Swat valley. He says gunmen detonated a bomb and then opened fire as the convoy passed through the Sersena area on Tuesday.

Bangash says that four paramilitary troops and one police officer died. He says seven militants died in a gunbattle that followed the attack.

A senior official from the paramilitary Frontier Constabulary says 12 troops from the convoy are still missing. He asked for anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media