The army said four Pakistani soldiers and four militants were killed in the firing

The Pakistani military says four soldiers and four militants were killed in a shootout early Sunday in northwestern Pakistan near the Afghan border.

A firefight broke out in North Waziristan on Sunday morning as military personnel surrounded a terrorist hideout, the military said in a statement.

"As the soldiers surrounded the area, the militants opened fire. All the militants were killed by the security forces," a statement said. "Instead of fire, four soldiers are martyrs (martyrs)."

The militants have not been identified, but the Pakistani military has been battling members of the Pakistan Taliban group known as the Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) in North Waziristan for years.

The TTP, which has backed the Islamic State in Afghanistan, declared war on the Pakistani government a decade ago. Since then, he has brutally attacked the Pakistan Army Public School in northwestern Peshawar in December 2014, killing 140 children and several teachers.

Terrorist groups in Pakistan are often associated with those on the Afghan border, so its progress in the re-emergence of terrorism is crucial, especially when Washington enters into an agreement with the Afghan Taliban to end the 18-year war.