Nine killed in Pakistan clash

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PESHAWAR, Oct 20 (AFP): Four soldiers and five militants were killed Thursday in a gunbattle in Pakistan's Khyber tribal district along the Afghan border, officials said. The fighting erupted when Pakistan's paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) launched a search operation in the Malik din Khel area of Khyber. The strategically important Khyber district lies between Peshawar and Afghanistan and is the main route for NATO supplies in Afghanistan. Mutahir Zeb, the top administrative official of Khyber, said militants from Lashkar-e-Islam (army of Islam) were involved in the attack. "Four FC personnel were killed and three were wounded. Five militants were also killed in the clash," Zeb told by telephone, updating an earlier death toll of two soldiers. A spokesman for the Frontier Corps confirmed the clash and the revised toll, and added that an army captain was among the dead.