Taleban militants ambushed a Pakistani military convoy near the Afghan border on Sunday killing six soldiers, security officials said, as the army prepared an assault on Pakistan's Taleban chief. Pakistan's campaign against the Taleban has won the praise of close ally the United States, which needs Pakistan to go after the militants as it tries to defeat al Qaeda and stabilize Afghanistan. The Taleban have responded to the offensive with bombings in towns and cities and attacks on the military across the north. Militants firing rocket-propelled grenades ambushed the military convoy in North Waziristan, another militant stronghold on the Afghan border, intelligence agency officials said. “They fired rockets damaging several vehicles and we have reports of the death of six soldiers,” said one official, who declined to be identified. Twelve men were wounded, he said. Military spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas confirmed the ambush and some casualties but said he did not have a figure. Earlier on Sunday, government aircraft bombed two Taleban compounds in a stronghold of Pakistani Taleban leader Baitullah Mehsud in South Waziristan, killing eight militants, intelligence officials in the region said. The air strikes came after militants attacked an army and a paramilitary camp east of Wana on Saturday, killing two soldiers and wounding four, said a government official in South Waziristan's main town of Wana. Mehsud is allied with Afghan Taleban fighters but they concentrate on attacking US-led forces in Afghanistan and are not the focus of the Pakistani offensive.
