Islamabad, May 27 (IANS/DPA): Islamist terrorists attacked a Pakistani military outpost near the Afghan border, killing at least five soldiers in the ensuing fire exchange, officials said on Monday.

At least five terrorists were also killed in the gun battle that lasted for hours, local official Attaullah Shah told dpa news agency.

The latest attack occurred in the mountainous region of Khyber that borders Afghanistan's Nangarhar province.

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the early morning attack that came a day after five militants and two soldiers were killed in a shoot-out in the same region.

The Pakistani Taliban, a group that follows the same hardline interpretation of Islam as their Afghan counterparts but has a different organisation, have been behind an uptick in violence in recent years.

The group, responsible for the deaths of about 80,000 people over years of violence, has been seeking a resurgence since Kabul fell to their Afghan counterparts in 2021.