About 150 Taliban launched co-ordinated attacks on five Frontier Corps checkpoints in Mohmand tribal region, on Thursday evening, they said.

The Taliban said only two of their fighters had died.

The military have launched offensives in the region in recent months, but insurgent attacks have continued.

"Security forces have cordoned off the area and are searching for the fleeing militants," a military spokesman said.

Mohmand is a transit point for insurgents crossing between Pakistan and Afghanistan and a stronghold of the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

Earlier this month, a twin suicide bomb attack at a government compound in Ghalanai left 43 people dead. Local officials had been meeting tribal elders to discuss forming an anti-Taliban militia at the time of the blasts.

In July, another twin suicide bombing attack, also targeting tribal elders, killed more than 100 people in the village of Yakaghund in Mohmand.