Four heavily-armed suicide bombers attacked a military facility in northwestern Pakistan on Saturday and killed two soldiers, but failed to storm a busy mosque inside, the army said. A splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan Jamaat-ur-Ahrar (TTP-JA), claimed responsibility for the attack on Ghalani Camp in Mohmand Agency that is part of the lawless Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) bordering Afghanistan. A spokesman for TTP-JA, Ehsanullah Ehsan, said the militant group carried out the raid in an effort to set free fellow militants from custody of the security forces. The militants began their attack at 6 a.m. local time (0100 GMT) and attempted to storm into a mosque where a large number of army recruits were present, the army said. "Wearing suicide jackets, the attackers opened fire and tried to rush inside the mosque," the military said in a statement. "Security forces surrounded the attackers. Two of the attackers blew themselves up while two others were shot dead," it added. "Two (paramilitary) Frontier Corps soldiers embraced shahadat (martyrdom) and 14 others were wounded," it said. The latest incident comes a month after an overnight militant attack on a police academy on the outskirts of the southwestern city of Quetta killed 58 people, mostly cadets, on Oct. 25. The army launched an operation in June 2014 in a bid to wipe out militant bases in northwestern tribal areas and so bring an end to a bloody insurgency that has cost thousands of civilian lives since 2004. Pakistan has been battling an insurgency since shortly after it decided to ally with the US following its invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Violence has declined in recent years following a series of military offensives in border areas as well as concerted efforts to block the militants' sources of funding. But the remnants of militant groups are still able to carry out periodic bloody attacks, particularly in the northwest. According to data from the South Asia Terrorism Portal, 457 civilians and 182 members of the security forces were killed in Pakistan from Jan. 1 to Sept. 11, putting 2016 on course for fewer casualties than 2015. Last year, the country recorded its lowest number of killings since 2007, when the Pakistani Taliban was formed. Pakistan's frontier regions, hard to access due to rough terrain, have long been the sanctuary of fighters from Al-Qaeda, the Taliban and other militant groups. In 2014, the army launched a major operation in other parts of FATA including North and South Waziristan against insurgents who routinely attacked government officials and civilians. Most of the myriad militant groups that stage attacks inside Pakistan seek to overthrow the government to establish their rule. — Agencies
