DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan — Pakistani security forces on Friday raided a militant hideout in the country’s restive northwest, triggering a shootout that left 17 Pakistani Taliban fighters dead, police said.
The clash took place in Karak, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, according to regional Police Chief Shehbaz Elahi. He said three officers were wounded in the gunbattle.
Elahi provided no further details but said that the killed militants were “Khwarij," a term often used by Pakistani authorities to refer to members of the Pakistani Taliban.
While security forces frequently carry out such operations, Friday’s raid followed a similar intelligence-based operation two days earlier in Dera Ismail Khan, another district in the northwest, where 13 Pakistani Taliban fighters were k