At least 10 Pakistani soldiers and 23 militants were killed early Friday in a gunfight in a restive northwestern tribal area

At least 10 Pakistani soldiers and 23 militants were killed early Friday in a gunfight in a restive northwestern tribal area, officials said.
  
The clash took place in Tirah valley of lawless Khyber tribal district bordering Afghanistan.
  
"At least 10 soldiers embraced martyrdom and three others were wounded," a senior security official told AFP. "At least 23 militants were killed in the fighting which lasted for nearly six hours," he added.
  
"All law enforcement agencies' posts in the area were intact and the situation was stable," the official said. Khyber administrator Mutahir Zeb Khan earlier gave a toll of eight soldiers and 22 militants killed. "Militants from Lashkar-e-Islam group attacked our outpost and a gunfight erupted," Khan said.

Military officials in Peshawar confirmed the attack and casualties.

Separately, gunmen on motorbikes Friday shot dead an intelligence official in the northwestern city of Peshawar, the capital of restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province which borders Afghanistan, police said.
  
Bashir Khan, an Intelligence Bureau inspector, was on his way to work on his motorcycle when gunmen also riding a motorbike shot him, senior police official Tahir Ayub told AFP. Khan, 38, died at the scene, he added.