Troops were dragged into clashes when trying to clear militants from areas adjoining Taliban stronghold of Kaniguram.
At least 15 soldiers were killed in the fighting, while a roadside bomb killed two soldiers in Sararogha area further east, officials said.
The Inter-Services Public Relations had said earlier that five soldiers had died in fighting since Wednesday evening.
However, army and security officials in the area said the military death toll stood at 17.
`Fifteen soldiers were killed in the clashes,’ an army officer said on condition of anonymity, releasing 15 names.
`It is the first time we have seen such stiff resistance,’ he said. Another official, also requesting anonymity, said the clashes included `face-to-face fighting’.
Security officials speaking on condition of anonymity have frequently released information from the South Waziristan battlefield that was later corroborated by the army headquarters in Rawalpindi.
Thursday’s losses come just one day after a landmine and separate ambush killed 10 Pakistani troops in the tribal district of Mohmand, further north along the Afghan border, in a sign that a guerilla campaign is spreading.
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