Taliban go on the attack in tribal Pakistan

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PESHAWAR, Pakistan (CN*) -- Dozens of Taliban militants took control of a government office in Pakistan's tribal region near the Afghan border Saturday, raising concerns about an advance on the nearby city of Peshawar, a police chief said.

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Pakistani police and government troops rolled into the sparsely populated town of Nasir Bagh in armored personnel carriers to assess the situation, police chief Riaz Khan said.

About 100 Taliban militants raided a development office in Nasir Bagh and attacked at least four workers there, Khan said.

Their status is unclear, although local reports said the men were kidnapped

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Nasir Bagh was home to one of Pakistan's largest Afghan refugee camps, but is largely empty now that those refugees have resettled.

The town is on the outskirts of Peshawar, the administrative center for Pakistan's tribal regions and the capital of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province.

The tribal regions are a hotbed of Islamic extremism and the scene of a major Pakistani military operation. Earlier in the day, the Pakistani military said at least 72 militants have been killed in the past week in the region.

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The U.S. military has also carried out airstrikes in the area and a ground operation earlier this month that rankled the Pakistani government.


As a result of that "reckless" ground operation, Pakistan's military chief announced last week that no foreign forces would be allowed to operate inside the country.

The United States is concerned that Taliban and al Qaeda forces operate with relative impunity in tribal areas along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan and use those areas as a staging ground to attack U.S. forces and their allies inside Afghanistan.