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The brazen assault took place in the restive Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province and comes just a day after a suicide bombing near a mosque in another northwestern town, Hangu, killed at least 26 people.

A spokesman for Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, commonly known as the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility and said it was to avenge the death of two Taliban commanders who were killed in U.S drone strikes.

According to initial details, Taliban militants, armed with heavy machine guns, fired rockets in the pre-dawn assault at the base in Serai Norang in the Lakki Marwat district, setting off a heavy gun battle that lasted for several hours.

A Pakistani army official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that 12 militants were killed in the assault.

"Bodies of four terrorists, out of which two were wearing suicide jackets, are in custody of security forces," the official said.

Eighteen security forces officials were wounded in the attack and were sent for treatment to a military hospital in Peshawar, the provincial capital.

During the attack, one of the suicide bombers entered a house near the camp and detonated his explosives, killing the women and children, the official said.

Pakistani officials described the base as "an isolated camp," and one of the three bases set up two years ago to wrest Lakki Marwat from the control of Taliban militants.

The ferocity of the attack, which appeared well planned and coordinated, took security officials by surprise, and they speculated that the attackers came from neighboring lawless semi-autonomous tribal regions, where the government has traditionally had little sway.

"We are trying to piece evidence," a security official said.

Ihsanullah Ihsan, the Taliban spokesman, who said in a telephone interview the attack was in retaliation to the killing of two Taliban commanders, identified one of the commanders as Wali Muhammad, also known as Toofani Mehsud. He was killed in an American drone strike on Jan. 6 in the tribal region of South Waziristan, and was known as a trainer of suicide bombers.

The country's lawless tribal regions have been a safe haven for local and foreign militants and as a result have been a frequent target of American drone strikes, which are deeply unpopular in the country. Pakistan's parliament has repeatedly demanded an end to drone strikes, although Pakistani officials privately acknowledge the effectiveness of the such attacks in killing militants.