Afghan militants cross into Pakistan in bold attack

Hundreds of militants crossed over from Afghanistan to attack a Pakistani military outpost Sunday, officials said, in an illustration of the merging of the Taliban insurgency on the two sides of the border.

The attack pointed up the growing boldness of militants in the lawless tribal areas abutting Afghanistan as Pakistan has diverted some forces to the frontier with India.

While stepping up their campaign against government troops, the insurgents also employ methods of baroque cruelty to intimidate civilians in the tribal areas. Hospital authorities in Khar, the main town in the Bajaur region, said over the weekend that militants had chopped off the ears of five captured members of a local committee organized to keep the Taliban out of town.

In the confrontation in Mohmand, a neighboring district to Bajaur, officials said at least 40 militants and six soldiers were killed in fighting near a military camp close to the Afghan frontier. As many as 600 fighters massed for the predawn assault, attacking the remote outpost with rockets and mortars, according to authorities and news reports.

The camp’s defenders managed to fight off the attackers, but clashes in the area continued for some hours, according to a military statement.

In addition to the six government troops killed, seven were injured, and tribal authorities said militants were believed to have captured at least five soldiers. Many troops abducted in battle are later beheaded by insurgents.

Analysts said the Mohmand fighting reflected stepped-up coordination between Taliban commanders in Afghanistan and Pakistan and underscored the ease of movement by militants across the rugged, poorly demarcated border.

The flow of fighters from sanctuaries in Pakistan’s tribal areas into Afghanistan is a well-documented phenomenon, but instances of militants using the Afghan side of the frontier as a staging ground for an attack against Pakistani targets are rarer.

Insurgents may also perceive that Pakistan is preoccupied with guarding its eastern border with India rather than focusing on the fight against militants along the western frontier it shares with Afghanistan, analysts said.

“The government’s attention is clearly divided,” said retired Brig. Gen. Mahmood Shah, now an analyst based in the northwestern city of Peshawar. There are “minimum forces” to keep militants in check in the west, he said.

Pakistan reportedly redeployed thousands of troops to the eastern border last month when tensions flared in the wake of the November attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai, which India and U.S. intelligence have blamed on the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Frontal attacks by militants on Pakistani military positions, as opposed to hit-and-run skirmishes, are somewhat unusual but could become more common if insurgents’ surveillance -- which tends to be thorough and constant -- turns up indications that a particular post is lightly manned and thus vulnerable, analysts suggested.

The soldiers targeted in Sunday’s assault were not regular army troops but were from the less well-armed and well-trained Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force that operates in the border zone.

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laura.king@latimes.com

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Special correspondent Zulfiqar Ali in Peshawar contributed to this report.