PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) - Taliban militants killed three Pakistani soldiers in an assault on a check post in the northwest as the military pressed its ground and air offensive, officials said Saturday.

The militants launched a rocket and gun attack on a paramilitary post in Torawari area of Hangu district late Friday, a security official said.

Three soldiers were killed in the raid, he said.

A senior police official said the attackers were Taliban militants who came from the neighbouring tribal region of Kurram.

Security forces based in a nearby fort responded by killing at least six attackers, police and military officials said.

The attack came as Pakistan's military continued a major ground and air offensive against Taliban strongholds in the lawless South Waziristan region near the Afghan border.

Pakistan, vowing to crush Tehreek-e-Taliban in the region, has claimed a series of successes in its three-week old offensive, in which 446 Taliban fighters and 42 troops have been killed.

The casualty figures can not be verified because communication lines are down and journalists and aid workers barred from the area.

South Waziristan is dubbed by Washington as the most dangerous place in the world because of an abundance of Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters.

Pakistan launched its fierce air and ground offensive into the region on October 17, with some 30,000 troops backed by fighter jets and helicopter gunships laying siege to Tehreek-e-Taliban bolt-holes.

The long-awaited assault on South Waziristan came after a spring offensive in the northwestern Swat valley. In July, the government declared the offensive a success but sporadic outbreaks of violence have continued in the valley.