PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani security forces raided a militant hideout in the restive northwest near the Afghan border, killing nine militants, the military said Monday.

The military said in a statement that a high-value militant Shireen was among those insurgents killed in Dera Ismail Khan, a city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

All the militants who were killed were the "Khwarij,” a phrase the government uses for Pakistani Taliban, and Shireen was behind last month's killing of an army Capt. Hasnain Akhtar in a shootout in the region, the military said.

The Pakistani Taliban are known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP. The group is an ally of the Taliban in Afghanistan and has been emboldened since the Afghan Taliban seized power there in 2021.

Pakistan has witnessed a surge in militant attacks, most claimed by TTP.

Though Pakistan often conducts operations against the militants, the latest raid in Dera Ismail Khan came a day after troops killed eight militants in the northwestern North Waziristan district as they tried to cross the border with Afghanistan.