Pakistan kills 34 militants in multiple raids near Afghanistan. An ambush kills 4 police officers

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan’s security forces killed 34 militants in multiple raids across the country, the military said on Wednesday, as a separate ambush blamed on the Pakistani Taliban killed four police officers near the Afghan border.

Pakistan's military, in a statement, said 26 militants, including at least one Afghan, were killed in four separate operations in North Waziristan, Lakki Marwat, Bannu and Mir Ali districts in restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in recent days, near the Afghan border.

The military accused some of the killed militants of trying to sneak into Pakistan when they were spotted and killed.

Meanwhile, eight members of an outlawed Baloch militant group were also killed in a separate operation in insurgency-hit southwestern Balochistan province, the statement said.

The military referred to the killed militants as “Fitna Al-Khawarij,” a term the government uses for outlawed Pakistani Taliban and Baloch separatists. It also alleged that the killed militants were backed by neighboring India but provided no evidence to support the claim. Weapons and ammunition were recovered during the operations.

Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari praised the security forces for what he described as successful operations against the Indian-based militants in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces.

There was no immediate response from India, but New Delhi has previously dismissed the allegations as baseless.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, in a statement, also praised troops for eliminating dozens of militants.

Separately, suspected Pakistani Taliban militants ambushed a police patrol in the former Taliban stronghold of Bajaur district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Wednesday, killing four officers and wounding two others before fleeing, local police spokesman Israr Khan said. Police launched a search operation to track down the attackers, he said.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack in Bajaur, but suspicion usually falls on the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or the TTP.

The TTP is separate from, but closely allied with, Afghanistan’s Taliban. Islamabad has accused the group of operating from inside Afghanistan, a claim the TTP and Kabul deny.

Pakistan’s military said it killed at least 70 militants on Sunday in strikes along the Afghan border, targeting hideouts of Pakistani militants blamed for recent attacks inside the country. Kabul has condemned these strikes, saying the strikes killed at least 18 civilians, including women and children.

On Tuesday, the forces from the two sides briefly exchanged fire along their border in the northwest.

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Associated Press writers Anwarullah Khan in Bajaur, Pakistan, and Riaz Khan and Rasool Dawar in Peshawar, Pakistan, contributed to this story.