Peshawar, March 24: Pakistan’s military on Wednesday launched an assault on Taliban hideouts in the northwest tribal belt, killing 11 militants in firefights and bombing raids, officials said.
The operation came hours after a US drone aircraft fired two missiles into a compound in North Waziristan tribal district near the Afghan border, killing at least six suspected militants in the latest strike by the spy planes.
Pakistani troops began operations just after midnight Wednesday to flush out militants from the outskirts of Kalaya, the main town in the Orakzai tribal district, a senior security official in the northwest city Peshawar said.
Helicopter gunships also shelled the militants in the same area of Orakzai, part of the lawless tribal belt along the Afghan border which is infested with Taliban and Al-Qaeda extremists.
“At least 11 militants were killed in this clean-up operation,” the senior security official told AFP, refusing to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media.
Major Fazal-ur-Rehman, spokesman for the paramilitary Frontier Corps, confirmed that security forces were battling insurgents in Orakzai and there were “militants losses”, but did not give the numbers.
An intelligence official said the shelling destroyed five mud brick compounds used by Taliban militants, while an administrative official based in Kalaya confirmed the death toll.
Under US pressure, Pakistan has in the past year significantly increased operations against militants in its northwest including the tribal belt.
The rugged tribal terrain became a stronghold for hundreds of extremists who fled neighbouring Afghanistan after the US-led invasion in late 2001.
Washington says the militants use Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal belt to plot and stage attacks against NATO troops stationed in Afghanistan.
The United States has also stepped up missile strikes in the tribal belt. The raid late Tuesday was the latest in nearly 100 US drone strikes that have killed more than 830 people in Pakistan since August 2008.
Pakistan’s foreign minister and army chief were in Washington on Wednesday for talks with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, where they were expected to push to secure armed drones for their own military.
—Agencies