Sixteen kidnapped Pakistani troops killed by Taliban

AFP - The bodies of 16 members of Pakistan's paramilitary Frontier Constabulary (FC) were found Thursday, almost two weeks after they were kidnapped from a northwestern town, officials said.

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the killings.

"We have received information that the 16 kidnapped FC men have been killed in Shawa," a small town in the North Waziristan tribal region near the Afghan border, senior local FC commander Ali Sher Mehsud told AFP.

"We are in touch with authorities in North Waziristan tribal region, who have taken possession of the dead bodies."

All the corpses had bullet wounds, he added.

A local intelligence official also confirmed the killings.

Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan claimed responsibility for the killings, telling AFP: "We taken revenge for continued operations of security forces against us. They are in fact fighting for Americans."

The FC personnel were kidnapped late last month during a night-time attack on a checkpoint in the northwestern town of Tank.