MINGORA, Sept 4: Seventeen militants were killed when security forces, backed by helicopter gunships and artillery, pounded militants’ hideouts in Koza Bandai area of Swat’s Kabal tehsil on Thursday. Nine civilians were also killed.

An ISPR press release said that three key Taliban commanders — Mohammad Younis, Saifur Rehman and Ziaur Rehman — were among the dead. Military spokesman in Swat Major Nasir Ali said that

47 militants had been killed in two days of operation in the area.

Troops have taken control

of the area and are advancing to other places in the troubled valley.Local people said nine civilians, four children and a woman among them, were killed and several others injured when mortar shells hit their houses.

An employee of a construction company was killed in Koza Bandai and two people in Mangulpam.

Helicopters dropped pamphlets in the morning asking people to vacate the area by noon to avoid collateral damage. About 3,000 families left their homes and moved to Bara Bandai, Dheri and Kanju.

People faced hardship in taking the injured to hospitals because of the curfew in force in the area. A large number of people were stuck on roads and many others were stopped at checkposts.

The ISPR release said that security forces had entered a decisive phase in the operation and expressed the hope that the remaining pockets of resistance would be cleared soon.

“We request the people of Swat to exercise patience and cooperate with the security forces to root out the menace of militancy and terrorism from the valley,” it added.