(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-08-10 01:50

ISLAMABAD -- Up to 12 militants were killed in an air attack by Pakistani security forces in a tribal region near the Afghan border Thursday, the army said.

Military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad said that helicopters intercepted militants in the Degan area of North Waziristan tribal region following an attack on an army convoy.

He said that five soldiers were injured in the attack of an improvised device. The miscreants fled after the attack and the army called in helicopters to target the attackers, he said.

He said that the miscreants tried to escape in two trucks which were also destroyed in the attack.

Meanwhile, the army spokesman said that a group of 16 soldiers went missing Thursday and search operation had started to trace them.

He said that the soldiers were coming from the Spinkai area in South Wazristan to Jandola, another town in the region, but did not reach till the evening, their arrival time.

"When they did not report at their arrival place, they were registered as missing," he said, adding that search teams had been sent to the area.

Violence has increased in the region after local Taliban scrapped a peace deal with the government and the security forces stormed Lal Masjid, a mosque in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad.