ISLAMABAD, Oct 19 (AFP) - Three Pakistani soldiers were killed and five others wounded Tuesday in an ambush by suspected Al-Qaeda-linked militants in a remote tribal region near the Afghan border, a security official said.
"Three security personnel died and five others were wounded when miscreants fired a rocket at military vehicles and also opened fire at them at Spin Kairaghzai area in South Waziristan," the official told AFP.
The attack came five days after army commandoes killed five militants who had taken two Chinese engineers hostage in the same region. One Chinese was rescued while another was killed during the operation.
The kidnapping was masterminded by Abdullah Mahsud, a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner, to press his demand for a halt to anti-terror operations to flush out Al-Qaeda-linked foreign militants and their local supporters.
The official said the area where the ambush occurred was a stronghold of Mahsud, who is being hunted by security forces.
"We have cordoned off the area and launched a search operation to hunt down the miscreants," the official said.
A top Pakistani general in northwestern region said Mahsud would be punished for his crime.
"I am confident that justice will be done to him (Mahsud). I want to do it as soon as possible," Lieutenant General Safdar Hussain, corps commander of the North West Frontier Province, told reporters in Peshawar.
Hussain said the army had killed 246 "terrorists" in operations against miscreants since March. "More than 100 out of these confirmed terrorists were foreigners."
He said some 171 security personnel had also died during the same period.
Pakistani forces have conducted a series of military operations in the tribal region, where hundreds of Al-Qaeda and Taliban fugitives are believed to have taken refuge after the fall of hardline student militia in Afghanistan in late 2001.
The military has said it destroyed several Al-Qaeda hideouts and training camps in the region.