KHAR: Pakistani Taliban released a video on Friday showing what appeared to be the severed heads of a dozen soldiers, as security officials said 15 troops had gone missing following fighting with militants. The clashes on Tuesday came as part of a Pakistan Army operation to repel Taliban militants who had crossed over from Kunar province in Afghanistan last Friday and occupied the village of Batwar in the Bajaur tribal district. "At least 15 of our soldiers are still missing," a senior security official told AFP. A Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Sirajud Din sent AFP a video showing a militant commander posing with 12 heads arranged on the ground, which he claimed were from soldiers they had killed. "Many of them were killed by bullets, 12 of them as you see have been beheaded, you see 12 heads here, and more heads are on the way," he said. The commander is flanked in the footage by armed men including one wielding a huge axe. The video also showed the identity cards of the dead men. Military sources have so far not said whether those shown in the video are Pakistani troops or the missing soldiers. In July, the TTP released a video showing the heads of 17 Pakistani soldiers they claimed to have killed in a cross-border attack on a checkpost in the Upper Dir. Intelligence officials blamed that attack on loyalists of Pakistani cleric Maulana Fazlullah, who fled to Afghanistan after losing control of the Swat valley to the army. afp
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