ISLAMABAD (AP): Militants who dealt an embarrassing defeat to Pakistan's army by seizing a border fort and leaving 27 soldiers dead or missing have abandoned the complex and melted away into the hills, a military spokesman said Thursday.

``There is no occupation of the Sararogha Fort. Militants have gone from there,'' said Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas.

Seven members of the paramilitary Frontier Constabulary were killed in the surprise attack on Tuesday night, the military said. Twenty more were listed as missing after the confused nighttime combat during which the rebels managed to succeed in breaching the walls of the fort which dates back to the British colonial era.

Fifteen members of the garrison made it to a nearby base soon after the firefight, and at least five of the missing have since been located, Abbas said, adding that the rest had probably sought shelter in nearby villages.

The military claimed the defenders killed 40 militants before being overwhelmed. But a spokesman for Tehrik-i-Taliban said that only two of its fighters died.

Although the rebels did not gain significant ground in the attack Tuesday night on Sararogha Fort, they did further erode confidence in the U.S.-allied government's ability to control the frontier area where the Taliban and al-Qaeda flourish.