Nine soldiers killed in gun battles on outskirts of Peshawar in northwestern tribal badlands

Militants ambushed Pakistani troops on Monday, killing nine soldiers in gun battles that lasted several hours on the outskirts of Peshawar in the northwestern tribal badlands.

Peshawar is the main city in northwest Pakistan and a gateway to the semi-autonomous tribal areas on the Afghan border that Washington calls the most dangerous place on Earth and a global headquarters of Al-Qaeda.

Another three members of the Frontier Corps paramilitary were wounded in the attack and at least 14 militants killed in retaliatory fire in Bara district, in the tribal district of Khyber, which borders Afghanistan, officials said.

"It was an ambush in the afternoon. It continued for two to three hours, and there have been casualties in the ambush. There have been killings of the terrorists as well," military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told AFP. He was unable to give a casualty count, but military and political officials in the northwest said nine paramilitary troops were killed.

"The militants attacked FC troops during a search operation. They came and attacked from a small hill where militants were hiding," the political agent of Khyber, Rehan Gul Khattak, told AFP.