PESHAWAR: US missiles and clashes between Pakistani troops and militants killed up to 32 people, including six soldiers, as pre-dawn violence swept the tribal badlands on the Afghan border today.

Pakistan’s fight against militants and a covert US drone war against Taliban and Al-Qaeda leaders is concentrated in the mountains of Pakistan’s northwest border area which Washington calls the most dangerous region on earth.

In the Khyber tribal district that straddles NATO supply lines, Pakistan’s military said 80 to 100 militants armed with guns, rockets and suicide vehicles attacked a paramilitary camp, sparking clashes that killed six soldiers.

Troops said they repelled the militants from storming the paramilitary Frontier Corps camp in the lawless northwest district.

Khyber is the main route from northwest Pakistan across the mountains into neighbouring Afghanistan.

Around 100 militants launched an attack on the camp in Jansi near Bara town, said local administration chief Shafirullah Wazir.

“Security forces effectively responded and repulsed the attack. During an exchange of fire with security forces, about 20 terrorists were killed and more than 30 were injured,” the military said.

Six security force personnel were killed and 15 others wounded, while vehicles rigged up with explosives were destroyed. Unmanned US aircraft fired three missiles that destroyed a compound in the North Waziristan killing six suspected militants, security officials said.