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DERA ISMIL KHAN, Pakistan (AP) - Militants holding some 230 Pakistani troops killed three of the captive soldiers before dawn Thursday in apparent retaliation for army raids on guerrilla hide-outs near the Afghan border, officials said.
The bullet-riddled bodies were found near a gas station in the northwestern town of Jandola, a day after a spokesman for the militants threatened to kill three kidnapped soldiers each day if the army didn't stop operations against them, two security officials said.
Some 260 soldiers were seized Aug. 30 in South Waziristan, a tribal region near Afghanistan where Taliban and al-Qaida fighters are believed to be hiding. Fighting between the militants and security forces there has since left scores of people dead.
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