ISLAMABAD: Six Pakistani soldiers were killed in an improvised explosive device attack on a military convoy in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the army said on Friday, amid escalating militant violence near the border with Afghanistan.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing, and the military did not disclose precisely where it occurred. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has borne the brunt of a growing militant campaign led largely by the Pakistani Taliban, or Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, which has intensified attacks since ending a ceasefire with Islamabad in late 2022.

Pakistan says TTP militants plan attacks from sanctuaries in neighboring Afghanistan and has repeatedly urged its Taliban government to act against them. Kabul denies allowing Afghan territory to be used for attacks on other countries. The dispute has sharply strained relations between the neighbors and led to repeated cross-border hostilities.

“On 17 September 26, an improvised explosive device exploded on security forces convoy, resultantly, six brave sons of soil, rendered the ultimate sacrifice and embraced Shahadat,” the military’s media wing said in a statement, using an Islamic term for martyrdom.

The military said 10 militants were killed in separate engagements in the province between Sept. 15 and 17.

Six were killed during an intelligence-based operation in North Waziristan, a former militant stronghold along the Afghan border, while four others were killed in Hangu district, it added. Weapons and ammunition were recovered from the dead militants.

The statement described them as members of “Fitna Al-Khawarij,” the term Pakistani authorities use for the TTP and its affiliates, and accused India of sponsoring them. New Delhi has repeatedly denied Pakistani accusations that it supports militant violence in the country.

Pakistan experienced its deadliest year in more than a decade in 2025, when conflict-related violence killed 3,413 people, according to the Islamabad-based Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies. The toll included 667 security personnel, the highest annual figure since 2011, as well as 580 civilians and 2,138 militants.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa remains the principal center of the violence. Fifteen security personnel were killed in a suicide bombing and gun attack on a checkpoint in Tank district in July, while 11 police officers died in an assault on a police post in Hangu last month.